


In Your Case

by SlytherinSpaceCat



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Hate Crimes, Homophobia, M/M, Slow Burn, They bicker a lot, auror iwaizumi, crime investigation, i might add tags as i go if i feel the need to it, lots of haikyuu characters will make appearences, oikawa is getting threats and iwazumi is there to solve them basically, quidditch player oikawa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:14:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21672055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinSpaceCat/pseuds/SlytherinSpaceCat
Summary: In Iwaizumi’s mind, Oikawa Tooru was an arrogant asshole that he had hoped he'd seen the last of when they graduated from Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the dickhead had gone and become a famous Quidditch player, making it all the way to England’s national team. Meaning Iwaizumi had to look at his stupid face in the newspapers more often than he wished for. And lately, the bastard had shown up even more frequently, since he’s been getting threats apparently. Which was big news and everyone was oh so concerned. As far as Iwaizumi was concerned, the idiot had probably done something to deserve it.And now, for some reason, the case had ended up on his desk to solve.-Or; Iwaizumi works as an Auror and gets the task of solving the case of who wants Oikawa Tooru dead
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I managed to crawl up my kpop hole just to fall headfirst back into my haikyuu hole and now we're here. This is my first ever posted haikyuu fic, so hello new fandom, what's up? How excited are we for the next season of the anime?? 
> 
> I really really like this au, i have about 20k words written already and lots of ideas, so hopefully i'll be able to keep this up. No idea how long it's going to be, but my goal is to update every other week or something like that (lol, wish me luck on that). This might be a long ride, so be prepared.
> 
> The ages differ a bit in this, so everyone isn't born in the same three years, bc that didn't fit the setting. Iwaizumi and oikawa is the same age though. 
> 
> Thanks to my friends for cheering me on in writing this fic, you know who you are. This fic wouldn't be here without you
> 
> Now enjoy and i'll see you on the other side

Iwaizumi came back to work on Monday to find a high stack of files on his desk. The pile tilted dangerously close to tipping over the edge, which would be the last thing he needed right now. It was bad enough that it was Monday, but he'd also realised this morning that he’d been out of Floo Powder, which had forced him to Apparate to work, leaving him with a major headache. He hated Apparition. It was a necessary evil in his line of work, but it always left him with a headache. He preferred to use the Floo Network instead. 

So, Monday morning with a headache and a big pile of work threatening to literally spill over his desk wasn't his ideal way to start the day. He just wanted to go back home to his bed and pretend this day hadn’t started yet. 

"Well, what got you so cheerful this fine morning?" 

Iwaizumi sent a glare to his co-worker. Of all the people in the department, he'd gotten stuck with sharing an office with Kuroo Tetsurou. The man was a good Auror, but he could also be annoying as hell if he wanted to. Which seemed to be always more or less. 

"Shut up, Kuroo." 

Kuroo just grinned at him and nodded towards the cup of coffee that waited for Iwazumi on his desk. It was still steaming. He closed the distance between the door and his desk in two long strides - their office wasn't very big - picking up the cup. The bitter smell of coffee was strong, and he drained the cup in one go, immediately feeling more alive. 

"Woah, there," Kuroo said, sounding a little bit concerned. "Rough morning?" 

"Out of Floo Powder," Iwaizumi muttered, staring down at his cup, wishing there was more in it. 

"Ah." Kuroo nodded with understanding. They've worked enough cases together for Kuroo to be well aware of Iwaizumi's problems with Apparition. 

"Plus this shit," he added, gesturing at the pile of files on his desk. It hadn't been there on Friday when he'd gone home for the weekend. 

_Become an Auror,_ they'd said. _It will be full of excitement and daring situations,_ they’d said, _never a boring moment!_

They'd completely left out the part with all the paperwork that was necessary as well. 

_Exciting my ass_ , Iwaizumi thought, still standing up looking and down on the pile. He didn't want to sit down, because sitting down would mean having to start to deal with the pile of paperwork. He thought about going and get another cup of coffee before he sat down. He was probably going to need it. 

"Oh, that. Ennoshida came by with the pile just before you arrived," Kuroo said, looking smugly at the pile. The bastard was probably happy that the pile hadn't ended up on his desk. "Apparently it's a new case for you. Daichi wants you to look it through and then report to him for full instructions." 

"Wait, all of that is one case?" Iwaizumi stared disbelievingly at the pile. He was going to need a lot of cups of coffee. 

"Yep. High profile case apparently. See it as an honour," Kuroo grinned, giving Iwazumi a bad feeling. 

"You know what this is about, don't you?" He glared at Kuroo who leaned back in his chair, tilting dangerously close to tipping over, putting his hands behind his head. 

"Yep." Kuroo popped the p, making Iwaizumi's eye twitch. "Ennoshida told me the gist of it." 

"What is it about?" 

"Read the files." Kuroo tilted back, leaning his chin in his hands. Iwaizumi glared harder, not that Kuroo was bothered by that at all. "But I'll give you a hint. You know what's been in the headlines a lot lately?" 

Dread settled over Iwaizumi like someone had dropped a bucket of ice over his head. 

"No." 

Kuroo grinned wider. "Yes." 

Iwaizumi spun around, not even bothering to put down his empty coffee cup, as he left the office with furious strides. Behind him he could hear Kuroo cackling. Damn Slytherin. 

He didn't even bothered knocking as he slammed the door to Daichi's office open. At a few years older than Iwaizumi, Sawamura Daichi was probably the youngest to ever be appointed Head Auror, and most days Iwaizumi even liked working under him. He had a firm understanding in what needed to be done, and which auror that was suited best for which case. 

But now Iwaizumi wondered if the Head Auror had fallen and hit his head or something, because there was no way Iwaizumi was best suited for this specific case. 

"Um, good morning, Iwaizumi-san," Daichi said, looking up and taking in Iwaizumi's furious look. "I get the feeling that you're not happy with the case I appointed you. Would you like to take a seat?" 

"You're putting me up with that bastard Oikawa?" Iwaizumi demanded, clutching the coffee cup and ignoring Daichi’s invitation to sit down. 

"Now now, Iwaizumi, the man is a national treasure after all, maybe you shouldn't call him a bastard?" 

Iwaizumi wondered if Daichi was mocking him. 

"And besides, you are the most fitted for the job." 

"How?" 

In Iwaizumi’s mind, Oikawa Tooru was an arrogant asshole that he had hoped he'd seen the last of when they graduated from Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the dickhead had gone and become a famous Quidditch player, making it all the way to England’s national team. Meaning Iwaizumi had to look at his stupid face in the newspapers more often than he wished for. And lately, the bastard had shown up even more frequently, since he’s been getting threats apparently. Which was big news and everyone was _oh so concerned_. As far as Iwaizumi was concerned, the idiot had probably done something to deserve it. 

Daichi gave him a long look. "Did you read the files?” 

That made Iwaizumi pause because no, he had not. Kuroo had just implied something, and Iwaizumi had gone running to Daichi immediately. He could feel his ears burn slightly. 

“No.” 

“Did you even open and looked at them?” 

“No.” 

Daichi gave him a disapproving look. “Please do that before you question my judgment next time.” 

“Sorry.” Iwaizumi hutched his shoulders, bowing his head. _God, this Monday was not on his side_.

Daichi waved his hand dismissively. “No worries. Now, please take a seat so I can fill you in properly.” 

The spare chair that’s been standing to the side, came forward with a wave of Daichi’s wand and bumped into Iwaizumi’s legs, forcing him to sit down. Iwaizumi sheepishly put his empty cup on Daichi’s desk.

“I assume you’re at least aware of the situation concerning Oikawa Tooru?” Daichi started, as he dug around for the right papers on his crowded desk. 

“He’s been getting threats,” Iwaizumi said, without being able to fully hide his content. 

Daichi pursed his lips. Even if Daichi was older and only been at Hogwarts the same time as them for two years, Iwaizumi knew that Daichi hadn’t been the biggest fan of Oikawa either (Oikawa had since his first year made himself known one way or another). But the Hufflepuff was a better person than Iwaizumi was, able to put stuff like that behind him. 

“In the beginning, yes. But it has escalated the last couple of weeks, the treats getting worse and worse. And this weekend there was a break-in,” Daichi continued. He took up a file, reaching it over for Iwaizumi to take. “You have a copy of this on you’re desk as well.” 

Iwaizumi opened the file. The first thing that met him was a picture of what he guessed was Oikawa’s living room. It was more or less completely destroyed, paintings pulled down from the walls, furniture in pieces, things thrown haphazardly all around. Over one of the walls, someone had written in big bold letters _DIE FAGGOT_. 

A lump settled in his stomach. “Did…?” 

“Was Oikawa hurt?” Daichi filled in. “No, he was thankfully not home. If he’d been, we might have been looking at a completely different case.” 

Iwaizumi swallowed. He had no fond memories of Oikawa Tooru and he would honestly be happy if he never had to meet the man again, but not even he deserved this. Iwaizumi didn’t wish to seem him dead. But someone apparently did. 

There was still one thing he didn’t understand though. 

“Why are you giving this case to me? Why not Kuroo?” 

Kuroo had been in the same year as him and Oikawa, and since those two both belonged to Slytherin and had played in the Quidditch team together, they already knew each other better than Iwaizumi had any wish in ever knowing Oikawa.

Daichi sighed. “I considered giving it to Kuroo. But I thought it might hit a little bit too close to home. Plus, you’ve dealt with similar cases before.” 

Iwaizumi hated it when Daichi made a good point. “But still, there must’ve been someone else who could’ve taken it?” 

“Iwaizumi, I know you and Oikawa didn’t particularly get along during your Hogwarts years. But that was years ago now. Both of you have grown up since then. And I do believe you’re the best man here to deal with Oikawa Tooru.”

“Meaning?” he grumbled. He doubted Oikawa had grown up at all, but he wasn’t going to tell Daichi that. 

“I suspecting that you won’t treat him like a celebrity, or give him to his whims.” Daichi grinned slightly at that, and Iwaizumi was reminded that the Head-Auror could be scary when he wanted to. 

Iwaizumi huffed at that. If Oikawa thought he could get his way just because he was famous now, he had something else coming. 

“How about this: go and read the case files properly, and if you still feel like you’re not the right man for the job, then I’ll see what I can do. Okay?” Daichi suggested.

“Fine,” Iwaizumi grumbled, getting up. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Daichi smiled knowingly. 

_He hated it when Daichi was right_. 

He sat neck-deep in the files concerning the Oikawa Tooru case, having looked them all over and his only conclusion was that _goddammit, he really had to do this, didn’t he?_

With all the current information in front of him, his mind had already started to lay out a plan of action to catch the bastard that was sending all the treats. If it was one thing he disliked more than arrogant pricks like Oikawa, it was people how mistreated others just because their way of living didn’t suit them. 

There was a knock on his door, and he looked up to find Daichi standing there with the same knowing smile as he had on before. 

“Fine, you win,” Iwaizumi grumbled. “I’ll take the stupid case. But you own me.” 

Daichi's smile widened. “I know I could count on you. That’s why you’re my best Auror.” 

“We both know that’s a lie. You think Sugawara is your best Auror and he doesn’t even work here anymore,” Iwaizumi pointed out. Daichi just laughed at that, neither confirming nor denying. 

“Thank you, anyway. For taking the case.”

“No need to thank me. It is my job after all.”

Daichi was kind enough not to point out how Iwaizumi had come barging in earlier that morning demanding to be taken off the case. 

“What now?” Iwaizumi asked. “I guess I have to meet the bastard.” 

“You should really try to refrain from calling him that if you’re going to work with him,” Daichi said pointedly. Iwaizumi just shrugged. “But yes, we’ve booked a meeting for you tomorrow. I would’ve wanted to give you another day or two to go over everything before, but Oikawa was quite… impatient. He would’ve barged in here today if I hadn’t talked him out of it. Tomorrow is a compromise.” 

“Of course that bastard would’ve.” Iwaizumi could already feel himself regretting his decision agreeing to this case. 

“Well, he also doesn’t really have a home for the moment, so I guess we could have some leniency.” 

Iwaizumi huffed. Oikawa should still let them do their job properly if he wanted to have a home to return to again. 

“I take that as you agree with me. The meeting is tomorrow a 9 am, my office. See you then,” Daichi gave him a nod and turn around, then he added over his shoulder. “And good luck.” 

If it wouldn’t have been so out of character for Daichi, Iwaizumi would’ve almost expected him to wink at him. He’d been working with Kuroo for too long. Thankfully Daichi wasn’t Kuroo. 

He turned back to the files in front of him. It was going to be a long night. 

Iwaizumi felt if possible even more like shit the next day. It was Tuesday and it wasn’t supposed to be worse than Monday, but the thought of having to meet Oikawa today had irked him so much he hadn’t gotten much sleep. And he’d forgotten to get more Floo Powder so he was having a headache again. Just great.

“Good morning to you, Sleeping Beauty,” Kuroo greeted him. How his co-worker always managed to seem so awake in the morning was beyond Iwaizumi (if you looked passed the terrible bed hair). 

Iwaizumi just grumbled something that could be a greeting. A cup of coffee was already waiting for him, and he thankfully drowned it. 

“Drinking your coffee like that can’t really be healthy,” Kuroo commented. Iwaizumi ignored him. 

“What time is it?” 

“Half-past eight.” 

“Good, then I still have half an hour.” He sat down heavily on his chair and dumped his head on the table. He should probably revise his notes one last time before the meeting, but if he had to read Oikawa’s name one more time, he would probably scream. He hoped he could solve this case as quickly as possible. For everyone’s sake. 

“You okay over there?” Kuroo asked.

“I’m fine.” 

“If you say so, champion.” 

Iwaizumi contemplated throwing something at Kuroo, but in that case, he would have to move and he had no interest in doing that. Instead, he just flipped him off, like a true adult. 

When the time turned nine he’d managed to drink another two cups of coffee. He thought about getting a fourth one for the day, but that would make him late, and he rather not be late for this particular meeting. Had it been only Daichi he would’ve have given a crap. 

He sighed one last time, gathering all the mental strength he had, before knocking on the door to Daichi’s office.

“Come in.” Daichi’s voice sounded strained, which wasn’t reassuring at all. But there was no turning back now, so Iwaizumi turned the doorknob and entered. 

Dachi was sitting behind his desk, tight smile on his lips, and he nodded to Iwazumi when he entered. But Iwaizumi barely registered it, because over at the window Oikawa Tooru turned around and gave him a dazzling smile, looking just the same as he had when they went to Hogwarts, except he seemed to be even a little bit taller. Plus he was boarder over the shoulders, and his face was not as soft as it had been during those years. 

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa beamed, but there was something reserved in his eyes. Something that hadn’t been there when they were younger. “It’s so good to see you after all these years! I can’t believe you’re the one that’s going to handle my case for me. I make me believe you might have missed me, am I right?” 

Iwaizumi gritted his teeth. “Like hell I’ve missed you. And stop with the Iwa-chan, how many times do I have to tell you? Are you really that stupid, Shittykawa?”

Oikawa pursed his lip, turning to Daichi, who had hidden his face is his palm. “Really, Daichi, I thought you would’ve had better discipline on your underlings.” 

“Sorry, Oikawa,” Daichi sighed. “But you’re the one who-”

“Is that really the right way to greet an old friend?” Oikawa interrupted, turning back to Iwaizumi who had to fight the urge not to kick him. 

“We were never friends.” 

“Classmates then.” Oikawa shrugged like he didn’t care one way or another. 

“Iwaizumi-san, would you please close the door after you and take a seat?” Daichi asked, tone suggesting an unspoken _so we can get this over with_.

Iwaizumi grumbled again but did as he was told. Oikawa remained standing, turning back to look out the fake window - they were underground after all. 

“Oikawa-san, Iwaizumi here will be handling your case from now on. I’ve handed all the files over to him, and from now on it's his call how the process will proceed.” 

Oikawa didn’t seem to be listening, and Iwaizumi almost cursed him to pay attention. Daichi just sighed again, turning to Iwaizumi instead. “Have you had time to go over the files since yesterday?”

“Yeah, I managed to read most of them. At least enough to get a good picture of the case. There are a few loose ends I would like to start with,” Iwaizumi said, looking at Oikawa as he added, “If Oikawa-san would like to help me by answering some questions.” 

He might have imagined it, but it looked like Oikawa’s shoulders tensed slightly, but when he looked over his shoulder at Iwaizumi his smile was as bright as ever. “Of course, Iwa-chan, that’s why I’m here.” 

Iwaizumi’s eye twitched. _This is your job_ , he told himself. _Take a deep breath, count to ten and then deal with it_. 

“Thank you,” he managed to say, without sounding too sarcastic. “Was there anything else you needed from me now?” He turned to Daichi, and added with a nod towards Oikawa. “Or from Mr. Quidditch Star over there?” 

“No, you can leave,” Daichi said, sounding happy to get rid of them. “Report back to me when you have something new.” 

“Okay,” Iwaizumi nodded once before standing up. “Hey, Shittykawa, come with me.” 

Oikawa pouted. “So mean.” Then he turned to Daichi again. “Thank you so much for all your help.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

Iwaizumi started to walk out without checking if Oikawa was following him or not. If Oikawa got lost in the building, it wasn’t really Iwazumi’s fault, was it? But unfortunately, he heard Oikawa’s footsteps fall in next to him before he’d even taken the first turn. 

“Your insults haven’t gotten any better over the last eight years,” Oikawa commented, his voice much soberer now. “I would’ve expected you to come up with something a little more creative than Shittykawa by now.” 

“Crappykawa.” 

He could see Oikawa putting a hand over his heart from the corner of his eye. “Ouch, I’m hurt.” 

“You don’t have a heart, how can you possibly be hurt?” Iwaizumi grunted, slamming the door to his office open. Kuroo was thankfully not there. He rather do this interview there in his office than down in one of the official interrogation rooms. Oikawa was the victim after all, not a creepy suspect. 

He turned around when Oikawa didn’t take the bait and responded. Oikawa looked serious, and Iwaizumi gave him a glare. Oikawa huffed, crossing his arms and looking away.

“What, you’re right so I have nothing to say.” 

Iwaizumi groaned. He had no intention to apologize to Oikawa of all people, but he guessed he could turn down the insults for the time being. 

“Just take a seat,” he said, pulling out a chair in front of his desk. Then he added, a little more gentle. “Oikawa.” 

Oikawa gave a start. Then he grinned, looking like himself again. “Wow, so kind, Iwa-chan.” 

Iwaizumi closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before he sat down behind his desk, pulling out pen and paper. “Should we get this over with?” 

“It’s almost as if you want to get rid of me,” Oikawa commented with a sly smile as he sat down, crossing his legs and leaning back. 

“No, what gave you that idea?” 

“Wow, we’re turning to sarcasm now?” 

“I swear to God,” Iwaizumi started, unconsciously crumbling the paper in front of him. Oikawa held up his hands in a peace offering gesture.

“Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly, eyes crinkling. “Do your job. Please.” 

Iwaizumi gave him a long glare, daring him to interrupt again. If he did, Iwaizumi would go straight to Daichi and tell him that someone else could take this stupid case. Oikawa pretended to lock his lips shut. 

“Okay. First I have to ask you if it’s okay that I take notes from this interview? I’ve already read the statements you’ve done before, but I would like to hear some things for myself. And everything needs to be recorded,” Iwaizumi explained, deciding to treat Oikawa as any other victim he had handled. 

“You have my permission.” 

“Thank you. Then let’s get started.” He took up the first file. “You have been getting treats, yes?” 

“Yes.” 

“Through mail only, or had there been any verbal treats as well?” It was one of the things Iwaizumi had thought about when he first looked through the files. Whichever incompetent idiot that had taken Oikawa’s first statement had completely missed that question. 

Oikawa hummed. “Depends what you mean with treats? During matches, people call all kinds of unkind things to me and my teammates. But that’s just something that comes with being a professional Quidditch-player.” He shrugged. “It’s not just something I have to go through.” 

“That’s shitty,” Iwaizumi commented. This is why he’d stopped going to official Quidditch games. People were generally nasty there, plus he wasn’t a big fan of crowds. 

“Yeah,” Oikawa agreed. 

“Any other verbal treats?” 

“Well, people do recognize me on the streets as well, and I’ve gotten my fair share of trash talk thrown after me. But that’s also a part of being a professional Quidditch player.”

Iwaizumi huffed. “It shouldn’t have to be.”

“Well. It is,” Oikawa shot back, crossing his arms, shoulders tense. 

“So is you getting hate mail and break-ins also a part of being a professional quidditch player, or is that just because of your crappy personality?” Iwaizumi said, anger rising up to the surface again. 

Anger flashed by in Oikawa's eyes as well before he managed to hide it behind a confident grin. "People are just jealous. They can't handle that I'm so much better than them." 

Iwaizumi threw the photo of Oikawa's destroyed living room in front of him. "Does this look like 'just jealousy' to you?" 

Oikawa visibly winced back from the photo and Iwaizumi almost felt a bit bad for throwing that in his face. 

"No." 

"Thought so." 

Oikawa pursed his lips, but didn't argue. Iwaizumi sighed. 

"Can you think of any reason why someone would dislike you?" 

Oikawa let out a dry laugh. "Why don't you answer that yourself." 

Iwaizumi's eye twitched. "It's a bloody big difference in disliking someone that was a pick in school, and sending death threats."

They glared at each other until Iwaizumi sighed. "Let me rephrase that. Can you think of anyone that would want you dead?" 

Now it was Oikawa's turn to sigh. "Not anyone I know."

"Any enemies?” 

“Not if you don’t count the people on the other teams. My team as a tendency to win. You don’t really get friends like that. There this one guy on Japan’s national team that really irks me-”

“Okay, so no obvious enemies,” Iwaizumi interrupted him. He took up the picture he’d thrown at Oikawa, looking at the big bold letters that were written over the wall. “If I’m going to be honest with you, I think we’re looking at a hate crime.” 

Oikawa made no response to that, but he tensed his shoulders like he was waiting for a blow. Iwaizumi put down the picture. 

“I’m not going to ask you if the shitty person who did this was right in their claim or not, because one, I have nothing to do with that and two, I honestly don’t care who you shag. ” 

Oikawa looked at him with big eyes. “Okay.” A pause. “Thank you.” 

“Don’t mention it. Now, where are you staying at the moment?” Iwaizumi moved on. There was no point in dwelling on things that didn’t matter for the case. Because as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter if Oikawa was gay or not, no one deserved to get hate for who they loved. 

“At a friend's place,” Oikawa said. 

“A teammate?” 

“No. An old friend from school.” Oikawa didn’t offer a name and Iwaizumi didn’t ask. He didn’t need to know for now. But his mind brought up a bunch of possible candidates anyway. He stored them away for later. 

“How many know where you’re staying now?” 

“My team, and the coach and manager of course. A few friends,” Oikawa said, shrugging, but he didn’t really meet Iwaizumi’s eyes.

“Not your family?” he couldn’t help but ask. 

Oikawa huffed out a laugh, but there was no joy in it. “No.”

Iwaizumi decided not to comment on that, but he filed it away for later. “Okay, try to keep how many that knows where you’re staying to a minimum. If the press asks, don’t tell them. We don’t need to make your whereabouts national knowledge.”

“I’m not stupid, you know,” Oikawa sneered. 

“It’s hard to tell because you look kind of stupid to me,” Iwaizumi snapped, immediately regretting it. He couldn’t treat Oikawa as he had when they both had been teenagers. 

“Ouch. Are you always this mean to the ones you’re working with?” 

“No, only you.” 

“Wow, I feel so special,” Oikawa rolled his eyes, then he bit his lip, looking a bit unsure. “Hey, Iwa-chan, you think you’re gonna solve this case?” 

Iwaizumi looked at him like he truly was stupid. “Of course I will. That’s my job. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think I would be able to solve it.”

“Okay. That makes me glad,” Oikawa smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Are we done here for now?” 

“Yeah, you can get out. I have work to do,” Iwaizumi waved him away. 

“So rude, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa pouted as he got up. 

“Live with it,” Iwaizumi said. “I’ll let you know if I have any more questions.” 

They stared each other down one last time before Oikawa turned around, waving over his shoulder. “Okay, Iwa-chan. Thank you for doing this for me.” 

“I’m not doing it for you!” Iwaizumi yelled after him, but Oikawa made no sign that he had heard it as he left. “I’m doing it for my damn paycheck. Even though I’m not getting paid enough for dealing with this shit,” he added to himself. 

  
  


He spent the rest of the day properly going over the files, piecing together what he knew about the case. Ennoshida came by to check on him once, probably on Daichi’s orders. When he finally went home for the day his head was spinning with possible suspects and trails he wanted to follow. But for now, he just wanted a shower and sleep for as many hours as possible before he had to be at work again. 

But when he came home he found his door unlocked. And he thought he knew who the culprits where. 

“Seriously?” he groaned when he found Hanamaki Takahiro and Matsukawa Issei on his sofa, watching TV intently. 

“Oh, welcome home, Iwazumi,” Matsukawa greeted calmly, tearing his eyes from the TV. 

“We were out of beer,” Hanamaki explained to Iwazumi’s unasked question, holding up the bottle he had in his hand. 

“Couldn’t you just have taken the beer and gone back to your place?” Iwaizumi asked, putting down his bag and removing his shoes. He had no energy for those two now. 

They lived just next door, both of them muggles. Iwaizumi had gotten to know them when he’d moved in and they had quickly become friends. They had no idea he was a wizard thought, but since he was a muggle-born he had no trouble living among muggles and fitting in. As far as they knew he was a police officer, which was close enough. 

“But your TV has more channels than ours,” Matsukawa said, turning back to the TV. 

“Which is a complete waste, since you’re never home to watch them,” Hanamaki filled his, sipping from his stolen beer. Iwaizumi couldn’t really find it in him to care. “How was work?” 

“Horrible,” Iwaizumi groaned, dumping himself down in his armchair since the two long idiots had occupied the whole sofa. Not that it was so much to occupy, it was barely big enough to be allowed to be called a two-seat sofa. “I have a new case, but the victim is a total asshole.” 

“Ouch, that’s rough,” Matsukawa said sympathetically. 

“What kind of case is it?” Hanamaki leaned forward curiously, placing a hand on Matsukawa’s knee. If the two of them were just best friends that lived together or an actual couple, Iwaizumi had no idea. He had never cared enough to ask. And as with Oikawa earlier, it wasn’t really his business. 

“Hate crime,” Iwaizumi said shortly. He had no wish to talk about Oikawa. “I’m kicking you guys out now. I want to take a shower and go to sleep.” 

“Boo, boring,” Hanamaki said, but Matsukawa stood up, pulling his partner with him. 

“Thanks for the beer.” 

“No problem,” Iwazumi waved them away. “Let’s hang out another day.” 

Both Hanamaki and Matsukawa looked excited at that, and they left with a last cheerful _Good night!_ that didn’t fit Iwaizumi’s tired mood at all.

He took a short shower before he crashed in his bed, but even if he felt exhausted, his brain didn’t want to shut up, replaying today's event over and over again. This was going to be a long night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this first chapter! I really wanted to post it tonight bc tomorrow is my birthday and i'm hoping that i'll get some comments and kudos as a birthday present heh. So please, leave a comment with your thoughts, favourite bits or anything else you might want to tell me. Nothing is too small really. And thanks for reading, i already know that you guys are the best!
> 
> Until next time xoxo


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wednesday was probably the worst day of the week so far. But then Thursday morning came around. Apparently the universe hated him. 
> 
> And Oikawa, he guessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is here! Thank you so much for the response to the first chapter, im really glad a bunch of you seemed to like it! 
> 
> Now enjoy the next part of "iwaizumi just wants an oikawa-free day but the universe hates him."

Wednesday was probably the worst day of the week so far. Not only had he once again forgotten that he needed to get new Floo Powder, the headache from Apparating already hitting him in full force, but when he opened the door to his office Kuroo was there chatting away with no one else than Oikawa, who was carelessly sitting in Iwaizumi’s chair. 

“What the hell,” he said, making the pair turn around to look at him. 

“Ah, good morning Iwa-chan,” Oikawa greeted. Behind his back, Kuroo grinned as if Christmas had come early. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Iwaizumi demanded, his headache pounding. 

“I had nothing else to do,” Oikawa shrugged. “Coach forced me to take a few days off to rest, and I can’t really go home to my own place, can I?”

“So you thought that you’d come and bother me instead?” He felt slightly sorry for Oikawa, but he had no interest in entertaining the idiot the whole day when he had work to do. 

“I can help!” Oikawa offered with a bright smile. He held out a cup of coffee to Iwaizumi. “Coffee?” 

Iwaizumi made no move to take it, even if the smell of it made his mouth water. “Like I would take anything from you.” 

“Rude.”

“I made it, so you don’t have to worry,” Kuroo chimed in. He was leaning his chin in his hand, looking like he was having the time of his life. 

“That’s not much better,” Iwaizumi deadpanned, but he snatched the coffee from Oikawa’s hands anyway. Had he survived Kuroo’s coffee this long, this cup probably wouldn’t kill him either. He drained it, the caffeine immediately giving him some new life. 

“That’s not the right way to drink coffee,” Oikawa commented. 

“Shut up. And get out of my chair.” 

“Is he always like this?” Oikawa asked Kuroo, but at least he moved from Iwaizumi’s chair. 

“More or less,” Kuroo shrugged. Iwaizumi glared at him.

“I can still hear you.” 

Kuroo just grinned, winking at him. Iwaizumi took out his wand, making the papers in front of Kuroo flip up in his face. 

“Tsk, so childish, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa commented, sitting down on the other side of the desk. 

“Seriously, Oikawa, I have work to do. I don’t need you today,” Iwaizumi said with as much patience he could muster. 

Oikawa pouted. “I can help. It’s my life you’re investigating after all.” 

They stared each other down, Oikawa not giving after an inch. And from what Iwaizumi remembered from Hogwarts, Oikawa could be really bloody stubborn if he wanted to. 

“Fine,” he groaned finally, making Oikawa shine up. “But if you get in my way I will kick you out in an instant.”

“I promise!” Oikawa made a stupid salute. In the background, Kuroo laughed. This was going to be a long day. 

Iwaizumi managed to ignore Oikawa for a solid five minutes before the other’s fidgeting got the best of him. “Sit still, goddammit!” 

Oikawa froze, trying to look innocent. Iwaizumi didn’t buy it. 

“I’m bored, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa complained. Iwaizumi supposed that wasn’t a big surprise, considering Oikawa was a professional athlete and probably spent his days burning a lot more energy. “I thought being an Auror would be exciting!” 

“It’s not.” 

“Well, duh, I noticed.” Oikawa flopped back on his chair. He hadn’t really changed a lot since school. “Are we’re just going to sit here the whole day?” 

Kuroo snickered in the background. Iwaizumi ignored him. Dealing with one idiot was enough, thank you very much. 

“You’ve been literally sitting still for five minutes.” 

Oikawa pouted, making big puppy eyes. Iwaizumi scrunched his nose in disgust. Oikawa was such a child. 

“That’s disgusting. You’re an adult for goodness sake.” 

“You are so mean. And no fun,” Oikawa complained.

“I don’t get paid for being fun,” Iwaizumi said, but he stood up. “And I didn’t ask you to hang around my office all day.” He rounded his desk, leaving the office. He could hear Oikawa scramble to keep up with him. 

“Where are we going?” Oikawa asked, falling in next to him. 

“To talk with the one who started handling your case before it got dumped in my lap.” He had a few questions. A few of them so he could get Oikawa out of his hair. 

"Ooh, I think I remember him!" Oikawa said. "Tall kid with spiky hair?" 

"Sounds like him. Even though he's just a few years younger than us, so maybe you shouldn't call him a kid?" Iwaizumi suggested. Oikawa just shrugged. 

"Hey, Kindaichi?" Iwaizumi knocked on his younger colleague's open door, making the other man jump. 

"Oh, Iwaizumi-san," Kindaichi said, then he noticed Oikawa. "Eek!"

Oikawa looked at Iwaizumi, raising an eyebrow. 

"Oikawa-san." Kindaichi scrambled to his feet, bowing his head. Iwaizumi huffed. So Kindaichi was an Oikawa fan. That was annoying. 

"Oh, I remember you. Kindaichi right?" Oikawa said, pointing at Kindachi who blushed and stumbled over his words in his excitement to answer.

“Y-yes! That’s me. I’m Kindaichi. Kindachi Yuutarou!” 

“You’re embarrassing yourself,” Iwaizumi deadpanned. That made Kindaichi blush even more. 

“Sorry,” Kindaichi bowed his head again. Oikawa chuckled. “What are you doing here?” 

“I had some questions about Oikawa’s case,” Iwaizumi said. 

“But why is Oikawa-san here?” Kindaichi said slowly, glancing uncertainly on Oikawa. 

“No fucking clue,” Iwaizumi grumbled. “He had nothing better to do than bugging me apparently.”

“You give yourself too much credit, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa patted him on the shoulder. “I just want to make sure that you actually do your job.” 

“Um, do you know each other since before?” Kindaichi wondered, looking between them as Iwaizumi swatted Oikawa’s hands away. 

“No,” Iwaizumi said at the same time as Oikawa said “Yes.” 

“Um.” Kindaichi looked even more unsure by that. 

“We were in the same year at Hogwarts, but we weren’t friends,” Iwaizumi explained. Oikawa thankfully didn’t argue. Then he continued before anyone else got a chance to say something.

“About the case, I have some questions.”

“Oh, okay.”

Oikawa went exploring Kindaichi’s small office as Iwaizumi asked Kindaichi the questions he needed answers too. Every now and then Oikawa chimed in with a comment of his own, correcting something he’d said before, or adding something new when Iwaizumi asked a question he hadn’t thought about before. Overall it wasn’t all that bad to have Oikawa there after all. Not that he would ever tell Oikawa that. 

“One last question, are you done with Oikawa’s apartment?” Iwaizumi asked finally. 

“Yeah, Yaku said we've gotten everything we needed from there. You should have the files on that tomorrow by the lastest. Probably later this afternoon,” Kindaichi answered, more confidently now. He seemed to had gotten used to Oikawa, who was now sitting in the only extra chair in the room, forcing Iwaizumi to stand. He didn’t mind, it got Oikawa out of his field of vision, which was a blessing. 

“Okay. Thank you.” Iwaizumi nodded. 

“We haven’t made any attempt to restore the apartment as it was,” Kindaichi added, glancing at Oikawa. “It’s usually easier for the tenant to do that themselves since they know the best how it looked. But if you want help, you can always ask us.” 

“Okay. We’ll probably go over there now then,” Iwaizumi said, gesturing to Oikawa to get up. “Thanks again, Kindaichi.” 

“Oh, no problem!” Kindaichi said quickly, not very discreetly looking over at Oikawa with hopeful eyes. 

“Thank you, Kindachi-kun, you’ve been very helpful,” Oikawa smiled, waving to Kindaichi as they left, making the younger blush again. Iwaizumi tried not to huff irritatedly. 

“You ready to go home now?” Iwaizumi asked as they made their way out. He couldn’t wait to get rid of Oikawa. At least for now. He knew he’d had to meet him more times until he’d come up with a solution to the case. 

“Yeah, sure,” Oikawa said, but he didn’t sound very sure. Iwaizumi glanced at him. Oikawa was looking straight forward, the look in his eyes far away. 

“Come on, let’s get going,” Iwaizumi said. “Do you have a fireplace in your home that we can use?” 

“No.” 

Iwaizumi groaned and cursed internally. “Do you Apparate home then?” 

“Usually yes.” 

“Okay, then we Apparate,” Iwaizumi sighed. Oikawa gave him a look that he didn’t acknowledge. 

“You’ll come with me?” Oikawa asked when Iwaizumi led them out into the main hall of the Ministry. 

“Yes, obviously,” Iwaizumi deadpanned. “It’s still a crime scene.” 

“Okay.” 

They stopped in a good spot for Apparition. Iwaizumi turned to Oikawa, waiting. 

“What?” Oikawa said, crossing his arms when Iwaizumi just continued to look at him. 

“I have no idea where you live, idiot. You’ll have to Apparate us there.” 

“Oh.” Oikawa actually looked a little bit embarrassed. Iwaizumi rolled his eyes at him, partly to hide how uncomfortable he was with this. Not only did he hate to Apparate to begin with, now he was going to let Oikawa apparate them both, something that needed that he had some kind of trust and faith in Oikawa Tooru of all people. 

Oikawa gave him a long look. “Are you okay with this?” 

“Yes, of course I am!” Iwaizumi snapped. “Let’s get going today, what are you waiting for?” 

Oikawa looked like he didn’t believe him, but since Iwaizumi didn’t back down, he had no choice but to put his hand around Iwaizumi’s wrist. Oikawa gave him one last look, before Iwaizumi felt the familiar and uncomfortable hook in his stomach and he was pressed together to nothingness. 

It lasted only a second, but it was still too long for Iwaizumi’s liking. He just managed to press together his lips to keep a groan from slipping out when they landed in Oikawa’s living room. Oikawa didn’t need to know how uncomfortable he was with Apparition, but the headache from the morning hadn’t fully disappeared, and now it returned with full force. It felt like someone was trying to split his head open with an ax. 

Oikawa stumbled next to him when they landed, his grip tightening around Iwaizumi’s wrist as he tried to keep his balance. Iwaizumi didn’t know if it was because of the Apparition, or the sight of his living room. Because it wasn’t a pretty sight.

The people from the Ministry that had been there had thankfully removed all the slurs that had been painted on the walls, but the living room still looked completely trashed. It was quite a shock to see it in reality after only seeing it in photos. 

When Oikawa made no move to remove his almost painfully hard grip around Iwaizumi’s wrist, Iwaizumi gently put a hand over his. 

“Hey, how are you holding up?” 

Oikawa jumped, pulling his hand back like he’d been burned. He didn’t look at Iwaizumi. “Sorry. I’m fine.” 

Iwaizumi almost argued because Oikawa was clearly not fine, but now didn’t seem like the time. 

“Do you want help to restore everything?” he asked instead, pulling out his wand. “It’s not going to be as good straight away as if you do it yourself, but it will be better than how it looks now at least.” 

Oikawa shook his head, taking out his own wand. “No, I can do it.” Iwaizumi choose not to comment on the slight tremble in Oikawa’s voice. 

Oikawa closed his eyes as he whipped his wand around the room. The spell was non-verbal, and Iwaizumi was reminded that Oikawa had been in the top of their class in most subjects when they graduated from Hogwarts. Because of course was the Slytherin good at almost everything he tried his hands on. It had irked Iwaizumi then and it irked him now. But he was glad that Oikawa wasn’t so upset that he didn’t managed to do a simple Restoration spell. 

The room put itself together in front of Iwaizumi’s eyes, furniture repairing itself, paintings flying back up on the wall. When it was done it was quite a nice looking room. Better than Iwaizumi had expected Oikawa’s living room to look at least. 

Oikawa slumped down in his armchair when he was down. He looked around the room and there was something tight around his lips. 

“So, are you staying here now?” Iwaizumi asked. He decided he didn’t like this quiet Oikawa. 

“No, I think… I think I’ll stay another night at Yahaba’s before going back here. I have to get my stuff there anyway,” Oikawa said slowly, standing up again. Iwaizumi realised that Oikawa probably was more upset than he let on, since he’d let slip who he was staying with, something he hadn’t wanted to share the day before. Or maybe he had decided that he didn’t care if Iwaizumi knew. It had always been hard to tell with Oikawa. 

“Okay.” Iwaizumi nodded. He remembered Yahaba. He was another Slytherin, but a year younger than him and Oikawa. He hadn’t made much impression on Iwaizumi during their school years, not more than he seemed like a quite shallow type of man. Not anyone Iwaizumi would have any interest hanging around. 

“You can go back to work now,” Oikawa said, turning his back on Iwaizumi. “Yahaba should be home by now, so I’ll just go there.” 

“Okay. Let me know if anything comes up,” Iwaizumi said, looking at the back of Oikawa’s head. 

“Okay.” 

Oikawa didn’t turn around or gave any indication that he was going to acknowledge Iwaizumi again. Iwaizumi sighed and Apparated away, headache be damned. 

  
  
  


The defeated look on Oikawa’s face haunted him the rest of the day. Apparently there was something he hated more than the overly confident and annoying Oikawa, and that was the defeated Oikawa. Maybe because it was something he hadn’t seen before. Oikawa in his world was always so sure of himself. This version of him made Iwaizumi feel like he’d entered some kind of weird alternate reality. 

He definitely didn’t like it.

So when Thursday morning came around he wished for an Oikawa-free day so he could focus on just solving the case. And then he would be happy to never have to cross path with Oikawa Tooru again. 

But the universe seemed to hate him because he had barely woken up, still warmly wrapped up in his covers, when a sharp knock came from one of his windows. He groaned and rolled over, hoping he’d had imagined it. But a series of rapid knocks followed the first one, and he did recognise that sound. He reluctantly got up and let the owl that was sitting outside his window in. 

“Why the hell are you here so early?” he asked the owl, voice still heavy with sleep. The owl didn’t answer, it just gave him a condescending look and held out its leg where a message was attached. He guessed he’d deserved that. 

The message was short and in Daichi’s handwriting. 

_ There’s been another break-in. Oikawa is already here. Come as soon as you can.  _

_ Daichi _

Iwaizumi‘s stomach dropped. He looked around for a pen and hastily scribbled an answer on the back of the note. 

_ I’m on my way _

The owl might not be at the Ministry before him, but it always felt good sending a message in advance anyway. He quickly threw on some clothes, taking an apple from the kitchen before he jumped into his fireplace. Thankfully he had at least finally remembered to buy new Floo Powder. 

“The Ministry of Magic,” he called and disappeared with a swoosh. Traveling with the Floo Network wasn’t a much more pleasant experience than Apparating, but at least it didn’t give him a headache. 

He tumbled out at the Ministry, less graceful than usually since he was in such a hurry. He quickly rushed up to the Auror offices, barely bothering to greet the people he met. Not that there were many, the working day hadn’t really started yet. Not even Kuroo was in their office when Iwaizumi passed there, even though the other almost always managed to come in before Iwaizumi. 

“Come in,” Daichi called when Iwaizumi knocked on his door. 

Daichi was sitting behind his desk, frown between his eyebrows as he greeted Iwaizumi. “Hi. Thank you for coming in so quick.” 

Oikawa was sitting in the extra chair in front of the desk, legs casually crossed, but his back looked tensed and he didn’t turn around to look at Iwaizumi. 

“No problem,” Iwaizumi said, closing the door behind him. “What happened?” 

Daichi glanced at Oikawa who slightly turned his head away. “There was another break-in at Oikawa’s apartment. Oikawa was the one who discovered it when he went there this morning. I’ve sent a team over to gather evidence.” Daichi paused. “From what Oikawa has told me, it looks basically the same as it did a few days ago.”

That was bad. It was almost as if someone had known that they been there the day before and decided to strike again. Possibly with the goal that Oikawa would be home this time. 

“Hey, Shittykawa,” Iwaizumi put a hand on Oikawa’s shoulder. “You okay?” 

He could feel Oikawa tense under his hand. “I’m fine.” 

Iwaizumi huffed. That was an obvious lie. But he let it drop together with his hand. “Okay, I’ll will go over and check the scene. We should check for trails of leftover magic. I suspect that someone has put up some kind of tracking spell over the apartment because this is coming way too convenient after Oikawa was there yesterday. It’s like someone was waiting for him to come home again.” 

“Okay. That sounds like a plan. I hate to say this, but you’re probably right,” Dachi sighed. 

“I’ll come with you,” Oikawa suddenly stood up, posture stiff and hands closed in fists. Iwaizumi realised with a start that he was a little red around his eyes. 

“No,” Iwaizumi said immediately. Judging from Oikawa’s state now, plus the fact that he was going to a crime scene and Oikawa was a civilian, him coming with Iwaizumi was a terrible idea. It was one thing following him around at the Ministry, this was something else. 

“I’ll come with you,” Oikawa repeated, voice more forceful. 

“And I said no. You’re not coming with me,” Iwaizumi said firmly. Oikawa opened his mouth to argue, but Iwaizumi didn’t let him. “I’m going to a crime scene. You are a civilian. I don’t give a crap that it happens to be your apartment, you’re not coming.”

“You can’t stop me from Apparating there,” Oikawa took a step closer, looking furious. Iwaizumi didn’t back away, even if he now had to look up at Oikawa. 

“Yes, we can. We put up a spell around all crime scenes to stop unauthorized from entering.” 

Oikawa tsk-ed, crossing his arms. He seemed to be out of arguments.

“Oikawa-san,” Daichi said gently. “Iwaizumi is right. You have to let the Aurors to their job. We should figure out your living situation from now instead. Please take a seat.”

Oikawa shot Iwaizumi one last nasty look before he sat down again. 

“Thank you,” Daichi smiled. This was the main reason he’d made Head Auror, Iwaizumi thought. Not that he was a much better Auror than the rest of them, but because of his way with people. He could lift anyone up and make anyone do as he wanted with just a few well-phrased words. “Can you continue to stay with your friend for the time being? It would probably be the easiest solution.” 

“That’s probably a bad idea,” Oikawa said, pulling something out of his coat. He threw what looked like a bunch of letters on Daichi’s desk. Iwaizumi immediately snatched them up, flipping through them. His stomach dropped when he realised what they were. 

More hate letters. More gruesome than what he’d gotten before. No wonder he seemed so upset. 

“Is that…?” Daichi asked, not needing to finish the question.

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi said, reaching the letters over to Daichi who flipped through them, eyebrows furrowing deeper for each letter. 

“Okay, so someone knows where you’re staying now apparently. That’s bad,” Daichi said. “We need to find somewhere safe for you to stay until we find the ones who are doing this.” 

“Don’t worry, we’ll catch these dickheads,” Iwaizumi added angrily. That made Oikawa look up at him. “Also, why the hell didn’t you tell us that you’d been getting more letters?” 

“Because Yahaba hadn’t told me,” Oikawa defended himself. “He probably thought that I didn’t need to get more.” 

Iwaizumi pinched his nose. That was fair. If it was someone he cared about he probably would’ve done the same thing to protect them. 

“Okay. Thank you for these, Oikawa,” Daichi said, putting the letters to the side, turning them upside down. “We’ll add them to the files. Now, Iwaizumi, you should get going. I will help Oikawa with his living situation in the meanwhile.” 

Iwaizumi nodded. “I’ll report back to you when I’m back.” He hesitated, glancing over at Oikawa. “If you don’t have anywhere else to go after you and Daichi are done, you can wait in my office until I get back.” 

Oikawa looked surprised at that, but he nodded once, which was good enough for Iwaizumi. Then he left before he could embarrass himself further. He had no idea where that had come from, but Oikawa had looked so pathetic that he couldn’t help but to feel for him. 

Oikawa’s apartment did look a lot like it had before he had restored it yesterday. But Iwaizumi felt like it was even worse now. The slurs were still painted all over the walls, even more than the last time. And the destruction wasn’t limited to the living room, the whole apartment had been trashed this time. 

It made Iwaizumi feel sick. He didn’t want to think about how it must have felt for Oikawa to walk in on this alone this morning. 

“Oh, Iwaizumi-san,” Yaku greeted. The short man lowered his camera, coming over. Yaku Morisuke was their forensics specialist. “This looks quite bad, huh?” 

“This is worse than last time,” Iwaizumi said. 

“It is. I feel sorry for Oikawa,” Yaku sighed. “I hate these kinds of crimes, there’s no reason for them."

“Have you looked for magical tracks yet?” Iwaizumi asked when Yaku raised his camera again. 

“Kiyoko-san is on it right now,” Yaku said over his shoulder, pointing towards the hallway. “She’s over there somewhere.” 

“Thank you.” Iwaizumi nodded towards Yaku before he made his way to find Kiyoko. She was probably the best in the whole Ministry in tracking magic trails, and Iwaizumi didn’t know what strings Dachi had pulled to get her here, but he was thankful. It probably meant that he would get the answers he needed. 

“Kiyoko!” he called when he spotted the woman tracing the outer door with her wand. “Nice to see you here.” 

“Hello, Iwaizumi-san,” she greeted, voice leveled as always. Iwaizumi sometimes wondered if there was anything that could phase her. 

“I have a theory that whoever did this had put up some kind of tracking spell so they would know when Oikawa returned home,” he said, straight to the point. Kiyoko didn’t really like small talk anyway. 

“I had the same thought, that’s why I’m here.” She tapped her wand against the doorframe. “If you’ll give me a minute.”

Iwaizumi took a step away to give Kiyoko room to work. In the meanwhile he let his brain run free. He realised that he stupidly had forgotten to ask Oikawa how his apartment was protected. He couldn’t remember if he’d read it in the files either. He felt like slapping himself. Damn Oikawa for distracting him. 

“Hey, Kunimi,” Iwaizumi called the younger man over. “Can you go around and knock on some doors in the building and see if anyone have heard a loud bang sometime during the night. This is a muggle building, so they wouldn’t recognise the sound of someone Apparating in, but the sound itself should be weird enough for them to notice.” 

“Okay, Iwaizumi-san.” Kunimi nodded once, ducking under Kiyoko’s arm and slinking out of the apartment. That was one of his favourite things with Kunimi, he always did as he was told without questions or arguments - if he didn’t have a better suggestion, but then it was always that, a better suggestion and Iwaizumi let him have his way. 

“You were right,” Kiyoko interrupted his thoughts. “Someone had put a tracking spell over the apartment. A quite simple one, but effective in its own way.” 

“Let me guess, it only alerted whoever put it up that Oikawa had returned, but not that he left again?” 

Kiyoko nodded. “Something like that. I’m going to continue to see if I find any new spells or traps. Then we’ll clear the apartment of all magic traces.” 

“Thank you. Report back to me anything you find.” Iwaizumi gave her a smile, to which she replied with a nod before she continued her work.

“We have taken photos of everything now and collected anything that could be evidence,” Yaku reported when Iwaizumi returned to the living room. “We’ll be taking it back to the Ministry to see what it could tell us. You’ll get a copy of everything as soon as we compiled it.”

“Thank you, Yaku. Good job,” Iwaizumi said, looking around the living room. The slurs on the walls still made him feel sick. Yaku followed his eyes.

“We’ll send in a cleaning team when we get back,” the shorter man said, patting Iwaizumi on the shoulder. “This is fucking disgusting, I don’t understand who could something like this.” 

“We’ll find whoever it is,” Iwaizumi said with vindication. This wasn’t his first hate crime case, and it probably wouldn’t be his last. The world was just a shitty place. 

“I’m sure you will,” Yaku nodded. “Say hi to Oikawa from me.” 

Iwaizumi huffed at that, but he took it as his cue to leave. He gave the apartment one last run over, just halting slightly before entering Oikawa’s bedroom, a room he’d never wished to enter. 

It was surprisingly spartan. Oikawa seemed to keep all his Quidditch prizes in the living room on display for everyone to see. The only thing he kept in his bedroom seemed to be the medal he’d gotten during their last year at Hogwarts when Slytherin had beaten Gryffindor and won the Quidditch cup that year. Iwaizumi remembered that game, Oikawa had almost knocked him off his broom, that asshole. Now the medal was thrown on the floor, the room trashed as the rest of the apartment. There were various slurs and treats painted on the walls in here as well. 

Iwaizumi quickly left, he had nothing else to gain from staying in the apartment any longer. And he knew that he was going to stare himself stupid on the photos of the apartment anyway. The forensics team was packing up their things as well. Iwaizumi Apparated out of there, he could deal with the headache. He just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

He picked up lunch on his way back to the Ministry. He hesitated only for a second before he picked up lunch for Oikawa as well. He had no idea if Oikawa would still be there, but if he was he probably hadn’t eaten anything. And if not he would just give it to Dachi or Kuroo. It wasn’t a big deal.

Oikawa was sleeping with his head on Iwaizumi’s desk when he came back. He had his face neatly tucked in over his arms, hair falling from his forehead, making him look more peaceful than Iwaizumi had probably ever seen him. 

“Oi, Sleepykawa, I brought lunch,” Iwaizumi said, putting down the bag in front of Oikawa’s head. “Get your head off my desk.” 

Oikawa sleepingly blinked up at him. “You really need to work on your insults. I’m not even sure that ‘Sleepykawa’ could count as an insult.” 

Iwaizumi gritted his teeth. “Do you want lunch or not? I can still take this to Daichi or anyone else really.” 

That made Oikawa sit up, grabbing for the bag. “Thank you for the food, Iwa-chan!” 

Iwaizumi huffed, but let Oikawa dig through the bag while he pulled up the other chair. They ate in silence. Or, he ate in silence, Oikawa, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be able to sit still, eyes drifting between his food and Iwaizumi. 

“What?” Iwaizumi finally snapped. 

“Did you find anything?” Oikawa asked, words tumbling out of his mouth. 

Iwaizumi wondered how much he should tell Oikawa. Oikawa looked at him with determined eyes. “I was right in my hunch that someone might have left a tracking spell over your apartment. They knew that you had returned.” 

“Oh,” was all Oikawa said. 

“Did you and Dachi agree on anything?” Iwaizumi asked, changing the subject when Oikawa didn’t say anything more. 

“Yeah, the Ministry has some apartments for people who are targets apparently. I’ll be staying in one of them for the time being,” Oikawa said, looking away. “Dachi said they just had to find a Secret keeper first, so I’ll probably stay with another friend for a night or two before they managed to solve all the logistics.” 

“Not Yahaba?” 

Oikawa shook his head. “Daichi thought that would be a bad idea since whoever is targeting me knows I’ve been staying there. So it will be safer both for me and Yahaba if I go somewhere else.” 

“Who are you staying with this time?” The question slipped out of him before he’d fully processed it. Oikawa gave him a long look. 

“Kuroo.” 

Iwaizumi nodded. That made sense. They had both been in Slytherin and played in the Quidditch team together. Even if Iwaizumi was unsure if they had any contact the last years. 

“So now I’m just waiting for Kuroo to finish work so I can go home with him. I need to pick up my stuff at Yahaba’s as well,” Oikawa said, picking his food.

Iwaizumi nodded again. He wondered why Oikawa still was here then, he did probably have other places he could be, he didn’t need to hang around Iwaizumi’s office. But here he was, looking down on his food, shoulders drooping. 

“Hey, finish your food,” Iwaizumi told him. Oikawa gave him a look that Iwaizumi couldn’t decipher before he continued with his food. Iwaizumi tried to not think about what it could’ve meant. 

When they had finished eating, Iwaizumi chased Oikawa out of his chair so he could continue with his work. During the rest of the afternoon, various people dropped by his office with the files and reports he’d requested. Some stopped to change a few words with Oikawa as well. The quidditch player’s mood seemed to have lifted, and he asked Iwaizumi about every file he received. Iwaizumi was close to kicking him out when Kuroo finally returned from whatever case he’d been running during the most of the day. 

Thankfully Kuroo was able to entertain Oikawa long enough for Iwaizumi to actually get some proper work down. 

“We’re leaving for the day now,” Kuroo said, pushing Oikawa in front of him out of the office. “Don’t stay too long. Go home and get some rest.” 

“Thanks, mum,” Iwaizumi responded. Oikawa snickered at that. Kuroo just rolled his eyes. 

When they had left Iwaizumi put his head on his desk and groaned. Who would’ve thought that just having Oikawa sitting there would put him so much on edge. He pulled himself up again. He could still get some more work done before he absolutely needed to go home. The sooner he finished the case, the sooner Oikawa would be out of his life again. What were a few too-short nights to that?

There was a knock on his door. He looked up and found Daichi standing there. 

“Hey. How has everything been going today?” 

“Ugh. Fine, I guess.” Iwaizumi pulled his hands through his hair. Then he noticed that it was something off with Daichi. 

“I have a question for you,” Daichi sighed when he saw Iwaizumi’s look. 

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” 

Daichi smiled at that. “No, probably not.” 

“Get on with it then,” Iwaizumi groaned, motioning for Daichi to step into the office. 

“Did Oikawa tell you what we agreed on earlier today?” Daichi asked, sitting down in front of Iwaizumi’s desk. That chair had never been so well-used as it had been this week, Iwaizumi thought. 

“He told me the gist of it. That he was staying with Kuroo until you had managed to solve all the logistics with a hidden accommodation. That you needed to find a Secret Keep- no.” 

Daichi held out his hands. “Please, Iwaizumi-san, you are the best choice.” 

“Don’t ‘Iwaizumi-san’ me,” Iwaizumi snapped. “You want me to be Oikawa’s Secret Keeper!” 

“Yes,” Daichi sighed. “For the place to stay properly hidden we need to use a spell that requires a Secret Keeper. You are the best option for that. I’m sure you know that as well.” 

Iwaizumi put his face in his hands. From what he’d managed to figure out from the files and reports so far, was that one - or more - of the suspects had to be someone in Oikawa’s rather close vicinity. No one else knew that he’d been staying with Yahaba the last couple of days. But how was he to know which one? Which one could they trust to be honest? For now, everyone was a suspect. 

“Okay,” he breathed. 

“Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll do it.” He looked up. “It’s just for a short amount of time.” 

Daichi smiled, looking relieved. “Thank you. We will set it up tomorrow. You should go home now, you’ll get nothing more done today.”

Iwaizumi sighed, but he knew Daichi was right. There was no point in torturing himself further. He knew that he wouldn’t get any real work done either, his brain stuck on the fact that he for some reason had agreed to be Oikawa’s Secret Keeper. 

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Good night, Iwaizumi-san.” 

His apartment felt strangely lonely when he came home. He shook his head, trying to shake the unwelcome feeling. His brain was just fried for spending too many days in the company of Oikawa. That was it. He just needed a good night’s sleep and he would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment with your thoughts to make me the happiest person alive.
> 
> Until next time xoxo
> 
> (also, if anyone is reading the manga and wants to cry with me, come and find me on tumblr, i have the same username there as here)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Please remember that you are both adults.” It was delivered with the plainest deadpan Iwaizumi had ever seen. He was actually a bit impressed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be a christmas gift for all of you, but i didn't manage to get it finished in time and then i got sick ugh. So a slightly late merry christmas, or just a nice wednesday to you if you don't celebrate! 
> 
> I hope you'll like this chapter. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but i know it won't get better if i keep staring at it, so i'll just post it. Enjoy
> 
> (also, this was not planned, but so far i've updated with an 11 day interval. let's see if i could keep that up lol)

He didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Instead, he spent most of the night tossing and turning, imagining different scenarios of what would happen when they told Oikawa he was going to be his Secret Keeper. But mostly he just saw Oikawa’s smug face in front of him and he wanted nothing else but to wipe that annoying grin off his face. 

Unsurprisingly, Oikawa was already there when he arrived the next morning. He must have come in with Kuroo. 

“Good morning, Iwa-chan. You look really terrible today,” Oikawa beamed when Iwaizumi entered the office. Iwaizumi flipped him off. 

“Why are you here today again?” he asked, accepting the cup of coffee Kuroo gave him with a thankful nod. “I know you don’t have a real job, but I presume you still have practice and stuff.”

Oikawa looked offended. “Excuse you, but I do have a real job. Just because you weren’t good enough to be a professional Quidditch player.” 

“Hey, no fighting this early in the morning,” Kuroo said when Iwaizumi made a movement towards his wand. “Oikawa, play nice. Especially since Iwaizumi is the one working on solving your case.” 

Oikawa huffed and pursed his lips, crossing his arms. “Fine. Sorry.” 

Kuroo gave Iwaizumi a meaningful look. “But I didn’t-” Iwaizumi started, but Kuroo just raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Sorry.” 

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Kuroo praised, sitting back down behind his desk, a smug smile on his lips.

“Coach gave me the whole week off,” Oikawa said, leaning his elbows on the desk. “I’ll go back to work on Monday. We have a practice game in two weeks against Ireland that I can miss.” 

“Okay."

“And besides, we were going to solve my new temporary accommodations today, I kinda needed to be here for that,” Oikawa pointed out, sounding way to condescending for Iwaizumi’s liking. 

“Okay, then let’s go fix that straight away so I can get rid of you.” Iwaizumi turned around, draining the coffee on his way out from the office. 

“Rude,” Oikawa said, but Iwaizumi could hear him scramble to his feet to keep up. 

“You kinda deserved it,” Kuroo piped in, making Oikawa glare at him over his shoulder. 

“Daichi-san,” Iwaizumi said, knocking on Daichi’s open door. “Is everything ready for Oikawa’s new accommodations?” 

Daichi looked up from the papers he’d been reading. “Oh, good morning. Yes, everything should be ready. Have you told Oikawa what we decided yesterday?” 

“No, he has not,” Oikawa said, giving Iwaizumi a  _ look _ , the kind he could decipher. 

“Iwaizumi, if you please,” Daichi said, and it was something teasing in his smile that Iwaizumi decided that he didn’t like. 

“We decided on a Secret Keeper,” Iwaizumi said, not looking at Oikawa even though he could feel Oikawa looking at him. “Me.”

“Okay.” 

Iwaizumi snapped his head towards Oikawa. “Okay? That’s all you gonna say?” 

“Yes. Okay. Sounds good to me,” Oikawa said with a shrug. “When do we start?” 

Daichi and Iwaizumi shared a surprised look. "Okay, let's get started then," Daichi said.

The process of making Iwaizumi the Secret Keeper were both more complicated and simpler than Iwaizumi had anticipated. It was a lot of signing papers to be honest. As soon as the spell was in place nobody but he would know the location of Oikawa's new place, even if they'd known it before. 

Honestly, he didn't pay much attention to the process, he was busy trying to figure out what Oikawa was thinking. He'd barely reacted when they suggested that Iwaizumi was going to be his Secret Keeper, when usually it was someone close, like a partner, family member or friend who got the - if you wanted to call it that - honour. 

Did Oikawa understand that it might be someone close that was targeting him? 

"I know that I'm incredibly handsome, but you're starting to creep me out with your staring, Iwa-chan," Oikawa commented when they were on their way back to his office. 

"What the- I wasn't staring at you," Iwaizumi snapped, trying to force a blush down. Because he was, to be honest, not sure if he'd been staring or not. 

"You've been staring at me the whole morning. It's giving me the creeps, honestly." Oikawa looked down on him over his nose, making Iwaizumi want to punch him. 

"Why would I want to stare at you?" 

"Have you seen my face?" Oikawa gestured at his face. 

Iwaizumi scowled at him. "Unfortunately yes." 

They continued bickering the whole way back to Iwaizumi's office. Kuroo was out again, and Iwaizumi wondered momentarily why he seemed to get all the cases that didn't require him being stuck at his desk like Iwaizumi always seemed to be. 

"Come on, let's grab lunch and then go and check out your new apartment," Iwaizumi said, grabbing his coat off his chair. 

"Are you asking me out on a date, Iwa-chan?" Oikawa teased. "Well, at least you're buying me a meal before I take you home." 

Iwaizumi could feel himself blush properly this time. "Like hell I am. I got you lunch yesterday, this time you're buying. And it's not a date." 

"Aw, you're hurting my feelings." 

"You don't have feelings."

Their bickering picked back up again all the way out from the Ministry, and while Oikawa complained a lot, he still bought lunch for Iwaizumi as well. 

"How are you feeling?" Iwaizumi asked when they took their seats at the overcrowded restaurant and Oikawa fell silent. 

Oikawa gave him a long look. Iwaizumi could almost see how Oikawa was debating with himself about how much he could or wanted to tell Iwaizumi. 

"It's weird," Oikawa said finally, just when Iwaizumi had decided that he wasn't going to get an answer from him. "I know I've always had people who didn't like me." He gave Iwaizumi a  _ look _ . "But that it would reach to this extent? That people actually seems to want me dead? It's… not something I would've had imagined growing up and dreaming about being a famous quidditch player." 

"It's not something you should imagine as a kid," Iwaizumi said angrily. "This is not normal." 

"So why me?" Oikawa sounded almost demanding, but there was something in his eyes that made Iwaizumi refrain from snapping at him. 

"Because people feel threatened by you," he sighed. He'd realised that long after they graduated from Hogwarts. Sure, Oikawa was still an annoying prick, but he was also extremely hard working and talented. That set people off. 

"Do you feel threatened by me?" 

Iwaizumi gave him a glare like  _ what kind of stupid question is that?  _ Oikawa huffed out a laugh. 

"No, of course not. You're too amazing yourself, Iwa-chan." 

He wondered if Oikawa was messing with him. That had almost sounded like a genuine compliment from the Slytherin. "Just finish your food se we can get out of here," he grumbled. 

They apparated to the new apartment. Because of course, it didn't have a fireplace ("What kind of luxury apartment do you think they've given me?" Oikawa had said when Iwaizumi had asked about it). The apartment itself wasn't that bad. It was smaller than Oikawa's own, but it had windows in two directions, a joint kitchen and living room, a separate bedroom and a small bathroom. The furniture was nothing fancy, but definitely decent enough. 

"So, what do you think?" Iwaizumi turned to Oikawa who was making a face. He hit him on the arm. 

"I guess it's fine," Oikawa sighed like the dramatic asshole he was. 

"You know you can bring some if your stuff over to make it a little more personal," Iwaizumi told him. 

"I was hoping that I wouldn't need to stay here for so long," Oikawa said, glancing at him. 

Iwaizumi sighed. "Me neither. But I can't really say how long it's going to take. I have a few leads I'm going to follow up on next week, but since I don't have a clear suspect I can't just take them in for interrogation."

"That's okay. I know you're doing your best, Iwa-chan. Just for me," Oikawa winked at him and Iwaizumi aimed a kick at his leg. 

"I'm just doing my bloody job, shut up, Shittykawa." 

Oikawa jumped away, making a twirl to escape Iwaizumi's foot. "So violent." 

"You haven't seen violent yet," Iwaizumi growled at him, but he managed to refrain himself from headbutting Oikawa there and then. He hated how Oikawa made him act like a bloody teenager again. 

Oikawa tsk-ed at him and they stared each other down. This time it was Oikawa who broke eye contact first. 

"I'm going to get my things from Kuroo," he said, "So I'll leave you alone to solve this case for me. Don't miss me too much." 

And then he Apparated way before Iwaizumi got to say anything else. 

"Finally," he said to himself. He gave the apartment one last glance before he left through the door. He wasn't apparating again today if he could avoid it. 

Now he had time to go over the files one last time and make some list for next week. Hopefully, he would be able to catch Kiyoko or Yaku as well, he had some things he wanted to double-check with them. Then he would go home and sleep for the whole weekend, pushing Oikawa far out of his head. He couldn't wait. 

Turns out that the weekend didn't become as relaxing as he wanted it to be. Firstly, he didn't seem to be able to get Oikawa out of his head. He didn't hear anything for the other during the whole weekend, which put him on edge. He thought he would've been happy not hearing from Oikawa, but after having had him around for the whole week it felt a bit off. 

And secondly, Hanamaki and Matsukawa had forced him out with them, making him spend the whole Sunday in bed with a massive hangover.

He almost expected Oikawa to be there when he arrived at work on Monday. Instead, he was met by Kuroo's smug smile and a cup of coffee as usual.

The morning wasn't Oikawa free for long though.

The Quidditch pitch where Oikawa's team was practicing was already full of noise, the morning practice having already begun when Iwaizumi stepped out on the stands.

“Iwaizumi-san,” Akaashi greeted when Iwazumi came up to him. The manager didn’t seem that surprised to see him, even if there have been years since they last met. “Welcome. I was wondering when we were going to see you.”

“Hello, Akaashi-san. It’s been long,” Iwaizumi said, standing next to him as they looked out over the Quidditch pitch where the players were flying around. Iwaizumi hadn’t been on a quidditch field in years, and he found that he missed it watching Oikawa and his team practice. “Have Oikawa…?”

“Yeah, he said that it was you that was leading his case. I was quite surprised to know that.” Akaashi glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Iwaizumi shrugged. 

“I was the best candidate to handle the case. And I didn’t have a case that I was already working on.” 

Akaashi looked out over the field again. “I’m glad it’s you.” His voice was mellow as usual, but there was something genuine in it. “I think it will work out.” 

Iwaizumi got a feeling that Akaashi was talking about more than the case now, but he didn’t ask. What he didn’t know couldn’t haunt him. 

Oikawa suddenly spotted him. He turned his broom around and came swooshing down from the sky, stopping just in front of them, hovering easily. His hair was windswept and his cheeks were rosy from the chill in the autumn air. Oikawa had always made sitting on a broom look effortless, like he was born to be on one. Iwaizumi had been quite a good player in his Hogwarts days, but he never seemed to achieve the same grace as Oikawa had up in the air. 

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa said, voice a little bit too loud. “Missed me already?” 

“As if,” Iwaizumi grumbled. From the corner of his eye, it looked like Akaashi was smiling a small, amused smile. “I’m here to talk to some of your teammates. For the case.” 

“IWAIZUMI!” a loud voice suddenly boomed, making him jump as something come swiping out of the air, braking in next to Oikawa. Now Akaashi was definitely smirking. 

“Bokuto Koutaro,” Iwaizumi greeted, looking up at the chaser who was grinning widely. “It’s been a while.” The Gryffindor had been two years above Iwaizumi on Hogwarts. 

“Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing here, Iwaizumi?” Bokuto wondered, leaning down over his broom to get closer. Oikawa was just hovering next to him with an unreadable expression as he observed the exchange. 

“Akaashi haven’t told you?” Iwaizumi looked at the manager who shook his head. That was a bit surprising since he’d almost never seen Bokuto without Akaashi around. Iwaizumi was pretty sure Akaashi had become the team’s manager just because of Bokuto. 

“Whaaat? You’re keeping a secret from me, Akaashi?” Bokuto turned to Akaashi with a big pout. Iwaizumi was impressed that Akaashi managed to keep a straight face. 

“It’s not my secret. It’s Oikawa’s,” Akaashi said flatly. Bokuto snapped his head towards Oikawa instead who just slightly flinched. Iwaizumi didn’t blame him. Bokuto could be quite intense. 

“Iwaizumi is handling my case,” Oikawa said, glancing at Iwaizumi. 

“Oooh!” Bokuto looked back at Iwaizumi. “Right, you’re an Auror now, that’s so cool!” 

“Thank you, Bokuto,” Iwaizumi smiled. It was hard to dislike anything about Bokuto. Sure, he was loud and a bit all over the place, but he was more like a big friendly puppy than anything else. He guessed that’s why Akaashi liked him, the silent Ravenclaw had never been a big fan of people otherwise. 

“So what are you doing here?” Bokuto asked, tilting his head, enchanting his likeness to an owl. 

Iwaizumi was just about to ask when a voice called out from down on the pitch. “Hey, what’s going on up there?”

“Sorry, coach!” Bokuto immediately turned his broom around, giving Akaashi a sheepish smile over his shoulder. Akaashi just fondly shook his head. 

“Sorry, coach,” Oikawa smiled, also turning away, eyes trailing over to Iwaizumi before he flew out on the pitch again. 

Akaashi waved to the coach, before turning to Iwaizumi. “Should we get down? I’m guessing you want to talk to me and the coach as well?” 

“Yes, that would be great. Thank you,” Iwaizumi nodded, following Akaashi down. 

He hadn’t met coach Irihata before, but the coach of the English national team was a well-known man. The coach raised an eyebrow when he saw Iwaizumi trailing behind Akaashi. 

“Who is this?” Irihata said before Akaashi had a chance to say anything. “You know I don’t allow outsiders to watch our practice.” 

“This is Iwaizumi Hajime. He’s an Auror. He’s the one handling Oikawa’s case,” Akaashi said calmly. “He’s here to ask us some questions. If that is okay?” It sounded like he added the last part as an afterthought. 

“Hello, sir,” Iwaizumi bowed his head. “It’s an honour to meet you. You’ve done great things with this team.” 

Irihata gave him a long look like he was judging his character. Iwaizumi tried to keep his face neutral. 

“How’s the case going?” the coach finally asked. “I would hate for Oikawa to be forced to be absent anymore. The quidditch season might be officially over, but we still have some important practice games ahead of us where I would need him in the starting line.” 

“Of course, I understand that,” Iwaizumi said. “It’s going forward. We have a few leads to follow, and I need to take in some statements to get a bigger picture. So if you and your players could spare some time for me today, it would be great.” 

He didn’t want to tell the coach too much. He didn’t need to know everything about Oikawa’s case. Plus he gave Iwaizumi a bad feeling for some reason. 

“That could probably be settled. Akaashi?” the coach said, turning to Akaashi who bowed his head slightly. 

“I’ll see to it.” He turned to Iwaizumi. “You can come with me.” 

“Thank you, Akaashi.” Iwaizumi nodded to Irihata before following Akaashi. 

“You can have your interviews here.” Akaashi showed into what Iwaizumi guessed was his office. “And I thought you can start with me. Then I’ll go get the players one after one, does that sound okay?” 

“Perfect. Thank you, Akaashi, you’re making my job so much easier,” Iwaizumi said, taking Akaashi’s chair as the manager pointed him to it. 

“Happy to help. Of what Oikawa has told me, if I ever get my hands on this bastard, he’d be sorry that he was born.” 

Iwaizumi had always seen Akaashi as a gentle soul, but he still wouldn’t want to be on his bad side. There was something dark in his eyes as he sat down in front of Iwaizumi that told him that it wasn’t just an empty promise. 

“I will catch them. I promise.” 

“I trust you’ll do that,” Akaashi said, and there was no false pretense there, just solid belief. 

“How’s Bokuto-san, by the way?” Iwaizumi asked to lighten the mood and ease Akaashi into the interrogation mood. Even if people were prepared and had nothing to hide, they still tended to get nervous. 

A small smile flashed over Akaashi’s lips, but it was so quick Iwaizumi might as well have imagined it. “He’s fine. He’s doing great during practice. Mostly at least. He can get quite moody when our Keeper manages to block his throws too many times in a row, and then he’ll start to mess up.”

“So nothing’s changed since Hogwarts then, huh?” Iwaizumi shook his head with a grin. Bokuto had been like that on the Gryffindor quidditch team as well. There had been no telling when he would self-destruct. It had been a real hassle. 

“No. He’s still an amazing player though. Probably one of the best out there right now,” Akaashi looked proud. 

“And outside the quidditch field?” Iwaizumi asked, looking closely at Akaashi’s reaction. The look Akaashi gave him told him that he hadn’t been fooled. 

“It’s good. He’s terrible at making the dishes though.” 

“That makes me happy to hear,” Iwaizumi smiled, earning a small smile from Akaashi was well. 

"Now, about the case, can you tell me your opinion of what's been happening?" he continued. 

"It's been going on more or less ever since Oikawa joined the team about three years ago," Akaashi said. "But from I understand, it started before that, when he played with Puddlemere United. It has escalated the last couple of months though." 

"Escalated how?" 

"The threats themselves weren't so… bad, if you can say that, from the beginning. More of the usual taunts you would expect between players and the opponents's supporters. I guess the letters started coming a few months ago?" He looked at Iwaizumi for confirmation. 

"From what Oikawa has told us, yes," Iwaizumi said. He was a little bit mad at Oikawa for not coming to the Aurors with this earlier. Maybe they could've stopped it before it escalated to this. 

"During games, is it only Oikawa that's targeted, or is it the whole team?" he continued. 

"The rest of the team gets their fair share as well. Except for Oikawa, Bokuto is the one that gets the most hate I would say," Akaashi answered, a tightness around his lips. 

"How does he handles that?" 

"He's fine. He's more worried about Oikawa."

"Of course he is," Iwaizumi huffed, shaking his head. Akaashi just smiled fondly. "Have Irihata tried to do something about all the hate that Oikawa has been getting?" 

Akaashi's expression only changed slightly, but it was enough for Iwaizumi to catch. "No. He just tells Oikawa to ignore it, and that's it something that always comes with fame. I've tried to talk to him several times, that maybe the club should make a statement against this, especially since it escalated, but he just brushes me away." 

Iwaizumi furrowed his brows. "Thank you, Akaashi. I think that was all for now. Could you get one of the others now?" 

"Of course," Akaashi stood up. “Let me know if there's anything else I can do."

"I will." 

The rest of the day went by in a blur after that. He took time to talk to all the players, both the regulars and the reserves. His brain felt like mush after having asked basically the same question over and over again, only getting slight variations in the answers. It was obvious that not all of Oikawa’s teammates were fond of him, but they respected him as a player and as their captain. In their cases, it seemed to mostly be old Hogwarts rivalry. Oikawa was the only Slytherin on the team after all. 

Bokuto was a fresh breath of air, even if he spent most of the time talking about Akaashi, but Iwaizumi didn’t mind. It was nice talking to Bokuto as just an old friend, even if his statement was important as well. 

The only one that set him off was coach Irihata. The man said barely anything, and Iwaizumi had to almost drag any kind of answers out of him. He said basically the same thing as Akaashi had told. It ticked Iwaizumi off how he could be so careless with one of his players' well-being. 

“Akaashi, you can send in the next one,” Iwaizumi called, flipping through his papers. It couldn’t be many left now, but he had honestly lost count. 

“Hello.” 

He looked up and saw Oikawa leaning against the doorframe. “Oikawa.” 

“You’ve interviewed my whole team already. Did you lost count?” There was a little bit of teasing in Oikawa’s tone, but not as mean as it used to be. 

“I guess I did. It’s a lot of people,” Iwaizumi answered, putting down his papers. “How was practice? Did it feel good to be back?” 

“Yeah. I know I was only gone for a week, but it felt longer. I always play, even when we have a few days off, just to keep in shape. Last week I didn’t touch a broom for the whole week,” Oikawa said, stepping into the room and sitting down in the vacant chair. “I missed it.” 

Iwaizumi almost asked why he hadn’t even touched a broom for the whole week, but it felt too personal. They weren’t friends. “I’m glad you’re back then. If not only because it means you’ll stop bugging me at work.” 

Oikawa raised an eyebrow. “And yet here you are, bugging me at work the first thing you do when I’m back.” 

“Shut up. I needed to talk to your team someday, and the sooner the better,” Iwaizumi said. If Oikawa had been sitting nearer he would’ve kicked him under the table. 

“Did they say anything interesting?” Oikawa said, sounding like he didn’t care, but his eyes betrayed him, showing curiosity. 

“I can’t tell you.” Which was the truth. Oikawa might be the center of the case, but that didn’t mean that Iwaizumi could tell him everything. 

Oikawa pouted. “Boring.” 

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes at him. “How’s the new apartment?” he asked instead, changing the subject.

“Cold,” was Oikawa’s immediate answer. “And empty. I don’t like it.”

“Well, I suppose it’s not the most fun apartment to be in,” Iwaizumi confessed. 

“Not really,” Oikawa deadpanned as if Iwaizumi had said something stupid. Which he guessed he kind of had. 

“I’m sure you’ll make the best of it,” he said, meaning it genuinely. He had no doubts Oikawa would make the best of his situation, he always had. “I should get going.” He stood up, pushing down the files in his bag with less care than he probably should’ve shown. Oikawa opened his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind. Instead, he stood up, brushing away unexisting dust from his Quidditch uniform before he gave Iwaizumi his hundred-watt smile, but not the genuine kind. 

“Yes, it’s not like I want you here tainting my workplace, Iwa-chan.”

“Like I want to be here,” he snapped back. “I can still give this case to someone else, you know.”

“Are you guys fighting?” Akaashi poked his head inside the room with his usual unimpressed look. The only time Iwaizumi saw him show any kind of emotion it was in relation to Bokuto. He guessed there was someone for everyone. 

“No,” they answered in unison, Oikawa grinning and Iwaizumi grumbling. Akaashi didn’t look convinced. 

“Please remember that you are both adults.” It was delivered with the plainest deadpan Iwaizumi had ever seen. He was actually a bit impressed. 

“So mean, Aka-chan!” Oikawa turned around and pouted. “I’m very mature!” 

Iwaizumi snorted. “As if.” 

Oikawa stuck out his tongue towards Iwaizumi over his shoulder, just proving Iwaizumi’s point further. 

“Oikawa, go and get changed, please. You stink,” Akaashi said plainly, turning away. 

“I do not!” Oikawa jumped up from the chair, whisking his arms out, spinning around to face Iwaizumi again. “Iwa-chan, do I smell?” 

“Yes.”

“Rude!” 

“You just had practice, of course you smell.” 

“I’ll have you know that I never  _ smell _ .” Oikawa looked offended in the way only he could look offended. Iwaizumi actually found it amusing. 

“Go take a shower, Stinkykawa.” 

Oikawa made one last offended huff before he dramatically stormed out. Iwaizumi just shook his head, before gathering his stuff and heading out himself. In the stairs he met Akaashi and Bokuto, the two standing almost chest to chest, completely unaware of their surroundings. Iwaizumi awkwardly cleared his throat. 

Akaashi immediately jumped a step back, ears turning red as he caught Iwaizumi’s eyes. Bokuto, on the other hand, didn’t look embarrassed at all. 

“Ah, Iwaizumi! Leaving already?” 

“I’ve been here the whole day, Bokuto-san,” Iwaizumi pointed out. 

“What, really?” Bokuto looked genuinely surprised. “The day went by so quickly, I didn’t even notice!” 

“It usually does when you’re playing,” Akaashi pointed out. He looked a little bit fond. Iwaizumi thought that he probably wasn’t even aware of it. 

“Or when I’m with you, Akaashi! Then the times goes swoosh as well,” Bokuto beamed, catching Akaashi’s wrist. 

Iwaizumi cleared his throat again, making the other two snap out of their loving gaze at each other. He wasn’t sure who was most embarrassed - him or Akaashi. 

“Thank you for today,” Akaashi said, trying to feign normalcy. 

“No, thank you,” Iwaizumi insisted, bowing his head slightly. “You made my work a lot easier.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

“Thank you anyway. I should get going now.” He bowed his head towards them both again, before walking away as quickly as possible before it got weird again. He had nothing against them as a couple, in reality, he was really happy for them, but he’d always been uncomfortable and awkward with open signs of affection. 

Plus, a little voice in his head supplied, aren’t you missing something like that yourself? He hadn’t had a proper relationship in forever now. His line of work didn’t really give him a lot of possibilities to date. He mentally scolded himself. He was only in his twenties. It was too early to have this kind of crisis. 

_ Get over it and focus on your work _ , he told himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like i said, i hope you liked it! Of course i had to throw some bokuaka in there bc why not. Like, who doesn't love bokuaka?? 
> 
> I hope this chapter made sense, i'm not completely convinced about the pacing. And i didn't really know how to end it. But oh well. Leave a comment with your thoughts to make me happy! 
> 
> See you! (in maybe 11 days hah) xoxo


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I can’t believe we’re going to see Oikawa-san play,” Kindaichi said, stretching up to get a better view of the field. Not that he needed to stretch, he was already taller than most. The arena was almost full and they were standing on the short end by England’s goalposts. 
> 
> “Remember we’re here to work,” Iwaizumi reminded him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so that took more than 11 days lol. If i ever even think about posting something again without it being finished, pls stop me. Even if i think "oh but i feel so motivated by this fic and i have so many ideas." Just no. 
> 
> But yay, finally a new chapter! Thank you to everyone who reads and leaves kudos and comments, you are the best. Now enjoy!

I waizumi didn't see Oikawa for the next couple of days. He was busy working with the case, and for the moment he didn't need any more information from the Quidditch player, so there was no reason for him to contact the other. No reason whatsoever.

"It's been a while since we saw Oikawa," Kuroo commented, probably trying to sound like he was just making conversation, but Iwaizumi wasn't fooled.

"It's only been three days since I saw him. Stop implying things."

Kuroo made an offended noise. "I would never." 

Iwaizumi finally looked up from his papers so he could give his coworker a flat look. Kuroo did his best to look innocent, but since he'd probably never been innocent a day in his whole life, he failed completely. 

"Anyway, how's it going?" 

"Feels like I've hit a dead-end," Iwaizumi sighed. "I've been trying to make sense of the team's statements, they differ slightly, but not enough for me to grasp something concrete out of it." 

Kuroo hummed in understanding. "What about the evidence from the break-in?" 

"From what Kiyoko-san managed to gather, it was two culprits responsible, but none of their wands was registered with the Ministry since before," 

"Meaning they will be much harder to track down," Kuroo filled in, giving Iwaizumi a sympathetic look. 

“Something like that.” 

He had a gut feeling about who might have something to do with it, but in this case, he couldn’t just go with it. If he was wrong it would stir up a lot of unnecessary shit. It would stir up a lot of shit if he was right as well. He needed more concrete evidence. Oikawa hadn’t received any more treats either. Which of course was great. But it didn’t give him anything more to go on, so he was kind of stuck and he hated it. 

“Heard they have a match this weekend,” Kuroo said. Iwaizumi hummed.

“Yeah. Against Ireland.” 

“Think anything’s going to happen?” 

“Hopefully not, but I’ll be there anyway.” The match between England and Ireland was an anticipated one, even if it was only a practice game. But everyone was excited to see how England was going to hold up against Ireland, the reigning champions. 

“Alone?” 

“No, I’ll have Kindaichi and Kunimi with me.” Not that he thought that the two junior Aurors would do much difference. What he needed was a full team so they could cover the whole arena. But apparently the higher-ups didn’t think it was necessary since there hadn’t been any new treats. So they had given him Kindaichi and Kunimi and called it a day. 

“That’s not enough,” Kuroo commented. 

“Tell me about it,” Iwaizui sighed. 

“What me to come?” 

“It’s your day off,” Iwaizumi said, a bit surprised by Kuroo’s offer. His colleague just shrugged.

“If I can help,”

“No, it’s okay. Thank you though,” Iwaizumi interrupted him. Kuroo nodded.

“Let me know if you change your mind.” 

  
  
  


Iwaizumi couldn’t help but be a little excited for Saturday. He hadn’t seen a proper Quidditch match in years - watching Kuroo and Daichi have a one on one in Kuroo’s backyard while they both were drunk didn’t really have the same feeling. He tried to conceal his excitement though, he was there to work after all. Kindaichi, on the other hand, was practically buzzing with excitement, while Kunimi looked as unimpressed as always. 

“I can’t believe we’re going to see Oikawa-san play,” Kindaichi said, stretching up to get a better view of the field. Not that he needed to stretch, he was already taller than most. The arena was almost full and they were standing on the short end by England’s goalposts. 

“Remember we’re here to work,” Iwaizumi reminded him. 

“Sorry, Iwaizumi-san,” Kindaichi said quickly, ducking down. Kunimi snickered. 

"Try to stay focused and alert for anything that seems unordinary. I know that we're hopelessly understaffed, but we'll just have to make due," Iwaizumi said, patting Kindaichi on the shoulder. Kunimi only nodded once before taking off to his position. Kindaichi shuffled away in the other direction, while Iwaizumi went up and around. 

It felt stupid trying to cover the whole arena with only three people, but it was the best he got right now.  _ Work with what you have _ , his instructor when he was training to become an Auror always said. 

Well, what he had was himself and two rookie Aurors trying to watch over thousands of people. Their odds didn't seem great to him. If something were to happen he wasn't sure they could actually do anything to stop it. 

He could almost hear Kuroo telling him to lighten the fuck up. 

He found his place by Ireland's goalposts. The Irish supporters were really getting fired up and Iwaizumi felt himself stand out like a sore thumb. 

_ Try to blend in _ , he could hear his instructor telling him again and again. Truth be told, undercover works had never been his strong suit. 

He made a pathetic little cheer and then shut up again. He just felt stupid. Some gave him questionable looks, but he ignored them. He wished he'd been standing on England’s side instead. He guessed he was technically cheering on them. At least for Bokuto's sake. Not Oikawa's. 

A roar rose from the crowd as the judge suddenly soared up from the field. She took a lap around the field, Quaffle under her arm. 

"WELCOME TO TODAY'S GAME BETWEEN ENGLAND AND IRELAND!" the commentator yelled excitedly and the crowd roared again. Iwaizumi's heart rate picked up and he found himself leaning slightly forward to get a better view of the field. 

"And here we have the teams! Playing home field is England, lead by coach Irihata, who's done great things with his team over the last few years. Is this the match where they finally beat Ireland?" 

The Irish supported booed. The commentator laughed. 

"We'll see, we'll see. Here we have the English team!" 

A roar came from the other side of the arena. 

"First out is the captain and chaser Tooru Oikawa!" 

Oikawa rose to the sky, smiling brightly while looking around. Iwaizumi got the unlogical feeling that Oikawa was looking for him and almost waved his hand as a response to that, but he managed to stop himself. He'd let Akaashi know that he and a small team was going to be here today, and he assumed that the manager had told Oikawa. But that was no reason for Oikawa to look for him. It wasn't like he would be able to see him anyway. 

Oikawa flew over to the English supporters as the rest of the team came up after him. Iwaizumi almost cheered for Bokuto before remembering where he was standing. When the Irish team came up Iwaizumi clapped not to seem too out of place. He could almost hear Oikawa's voice in his head -  _ such a traitor, Iwa-chan _ . He stuffed it in the back of his head where he already kept the unwelcome voice of Kuroo. 

When the Quaffle went up Oikawa was the first one there, catching it with an easy movement, speeding past the Irish players. He made it look so easy that Iwaizumi couldn't help but be impressed. Oikawa had always been impressive when he was flying, but the last years seemed to had made him more stable. Iwaizumi tried to put a word to it, but it was hard to exactly pinpoint what was different with Oikawa's way of playing now. In a way, he felt more grounded. When they were younger, Iwaizumi had always gotten the feeling that Oikawa one day was going to just keep going higher and higher and never come back down. 

Teenage Oikawa had felt fleeing, like if he stayed in the air long enough he could break free. The Oikawa now played with another purpose, with a purpose to come back down. 

Oikawa scored, the English supporters erupted in a cheer while the Irish booed. The Irish team quickly gathered themselves after Oikawa's first attack, and the rest of the game was extremely even, the teams scoring one goal at the time, going back and forth. The Irish team never managed to take the lead, but the English didn't pull ahead either. It would come down to who could capture the Snitch first. 

Watching the two teams go back and forth Iwaizumi realised how tame the matches at Hogwarts had been. At the time it had felt really intense, but now it felt like it had been child's play. Iwaizumi had been one of the best players in his year, but he probably wouldn't last a minute out on the field today. 

" Another spectacular goal by Captain Oikawa!” the commentator called out. More booing came from the fans around Iwaizumi, but at this point in the game, they were more of background noise than anything .

Oikawa took a lap around the arena, smiling charmingly to his supporters. He was almost all the way at England’s goalposts when it happened. A bolt of lighting came somewhere in the crowd, hitting Oikawa straight between his shoulder blades. Iwaizumi made a choked noise. He was too far away. Oikawa froze, then, as in slow motion, tipped off his broom. 

“Oikawa!” he realised with a start that he was the one that had screamed. He watched in terror as Oikawa fell to the ground. Even from this distance, it felt like he could hear the painful thud when Oikawa’s limp body hit the field. There was a silent shock covering the arena before it erupted in screams. Iwaizumi pushed past the stunned Irish supporters. He needed to get to Oikawa. He needed to catch whoever had done this. 

The Irish supporters he passed seemed just as upset as he felt when he zigzagged through them. It was one thing with Quidditch induced injuries. It wasn’t unheard of with quite serious injuries out on the field. But this was on another level. Now it was one in the audience who had viciously attacked Oikawa. There was no fairness in that injury. Being a Quidditch player, you kind of had signed on getting hit in the head with Bludgers. But you weren’t supposed to be attacked by your supporters. 

“You can’t go out there,” a guard tried to stop him when he reached one of the entrances to the field. 

“I’m an Auror,” he said, fiddling to get his badge up. “I’m working with Oikawa.” 

The guard looked like she wanted to stop him anyway. “Let me through, I need to see him!” Iwaizumi almost yelled in the poor guard’s face. He needed to see that Oikawa was okay. That he was alive. The image of his lifeless body spread out on the grass seemed to have etched itself in Iwaizumi’s eyes. He needed to check. 

The guard seemed to sense that Iwaizumi wasn’t beyond cursing his way into the field and stepped to the side. Iwaizumi pushed passed her, not caring if he came off as rude. There was a small crowd gathered where Oikawa had fallen. Akaashi turned around when he heard someone approaching. He stepped away from the circle to meet Iwaizumi. 

Iwaizumi almost pushed passed him too. He just needed to see Oikawa, see if he was okay. Akaashi must’ve sensed it because he caught Iwaizumi’s arms. 

“He’s alive,” he said, locking his eyes with Iwaizumi’s. 

“What…” Iwaizumi wasn’t even sure what he wanted to ask. Oikawa was alive. He was alive. 

“He’s unconscious. His injuries are quite bad, they need to take him to Sankt Mungos, but he’ll live,” Akaashi once again seemed to read his mind. He let go of Iwaizumi and took a step back. 

The crowd around Oikawa moved away, and Iwaizumi caught a glimpse of Oikawa on a stretcher, body limp. His eyes were closed, face pale, and he was bleeding from the side of the head. His right arm was in a weird angle, and Iwaizumi’s stomach dropped. He looked dead. Iwaizumi unconsciously took a step closer. Akaashi stopped him with a hand on his arm. 

“Not now,” the manager said. Iwaizumi wanted to fight him, but he knew he was right. He couldn’t do anything for Oikawa now. He needed to get to Sankt Mungos as quickly as possible. 

When they moved Oikawa away, coach Irihata looked back and caught Iwaizumi’s eyes. The coach said something to the paramedics before he stepped towards Iwaizumi and Akaashi. 

“I thought you were here to prevent something like this from happening,” Irihata said, stopping in front of Iwaizumi. 

“I’m sorry,” was all Iwaizumi found inside of him to say. The coach was right. He was supposed to have prevented this. That’s why he was there. To stop Oikawa from getting hurt. But he had failed miserably.

The coach huffed, giving Iwaizumi a condescending look. “If Oikawa gets permanent injuries from this, I’m filing a complaint at the Auror department.” And with that, he turned around and walked after the stretcher with Oikawa’s lifeless body. 

It felt like someone had punched the air out of Iwaizumi. Akaashi patted him on the shoulder. 

“It’s not your fault .” 

“Is it not? I was supposed to be here to prevent anything from happening to Oikawa.”

“It’s not your fault,” Akaashi said again, more firmly this time. 

“I need to go and find Kindaichi and Kunimi,” was all he said before turning around. He hoped that they had succeeded better where he’d failed. 

They were both waiting for him outside where they had decided to meet up after the match. And they weren’t alone. An unknown man sat on his knees between them. He had a bloody nose and a sour face. Kindaichi looked relieved when he spotted Iwaizumi. 

“How’s Oikawa-san?” he asked, worry clear in his eyes. 

“Alive,” Iwaizumi said, eyes on the man on the ground. “Who’s this?” 

“One of the two responsible for the attack,” Kunimi said, his grip on the man’s shoulder looking almost painful. The man winced. 

“You can’t prove it,” he spat. Iwaizumi kneeled down so he was at eye level with the man. Anger burned in his chest, but he refused to give into it. 

“We can,” was all he said. He stood up again, giving Kunimi and Kindaichi a nod. “Good job. Let’s get back to the Ministry.” 

  
  
  


The Atrium was filled with people as always, even though it was a Saturday. A lot looked after them when they Apparated there. Some were whispering and pointing. Iwaizumi had always hated how rumors traveled faster than anything else. He heard some say that Oikawa had died, some said he’d been abducted. It was ridiculous. 

“Take him to an interrogation room, I’ll be right there,” Iwaizumi instructed Kindaichi, who quickly bowed his head, before dragging the man away. “Kunimi, can you go and get the files? They’re on my desk. I’m going to go and get coffee. Do you want a cup?” 

Kunimi looked a bit surprised, but he quickly found himself again. “Yes, thank you.” 

Iwaizumi nodded once before he stalked off. The Auror offices weren’t as crowded as they could be at least. Some nodded at him when he passed, but they must sense that he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. He found his way to the break room, and thankfully it was empty. He leaned his head on the cupboards as he waited for the cups to fill up, head pounding after the Apparition. 

Oikawa was at Sankt Mungos and he had managed to do nothing to prevent it. Realistically he knew that his team had been too small. There had been nothing more they could do. They had despite that actually managed to catch one of the culprits. It was more success than he had since he started this case, but it still felt like a failure. Oikawa was injured.  _ Oikawa almost died, goddammit _ _. _ __

The coffee maker dinged, announcing the coffee ready. He straightened. All he could do for Oikawa now was to put the bastards that did this behind bars. He levitated the three cups in front of him as he made his way to the interrogation room. Kindaich lit up when Iwaizumi placed a cup of coffee in front of him. 

“Iwaizumi-san, you didn’t-”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, sitting down next to the younger. The man on the other side of the table refuses to look at them, jaw shut tight. Iwaizumi sighed. This is going to be a long day, he could feel it. 

  
  
  


The man was just as uncooperative as Iwaizumi had suspected. Hopefully, a night or two in the arrest would loosen his tongue. Iwaizumi had sent Kindaichi and Kunimi home, thanking them for their work today. Iwaizumi should probably go home as well, but he couldn’t make himself get up from his desk. He should leave a message to Daichi. He had probably heard about what had happened during the match today. Iwaizumi was almost a little surprised that the Head Auror hadn’t turned up in his office, but he guessed that the other had finally learned that he couldn’t do everything. 

But instead, he just kept sitting there, staring in front of himself, replaying Oikawa’s fall again and again. He knew that he would get no rest from that. 

He closed his eyes, pushing his palms against them. He groaned. It’s been long since he felt failure like this. Oikawa might be a prick, but no one deserved to be cursed off their broom. 

“Dammit,” he said to the empty room, before standing up and taking his cloak.

  
  
  


Sankt Mungos always made him feel small. He hated the place, but he steeled himself as he walked up to the information desk. 

“I’m here to see Tooru Oikawa,” he told the receptionist. The young man looked up at him with a frown. 

“Visiting hours are over, Sir,” he said, voice shrill, piercing Iwaizumi’s already tired brain. 

“I work on his case,” he said, sliding over his badge. The receptionist scanned the badge with pursed lips. “I need to see Oikawa.” 

The receptionist gave him a long look, and Iwaizumi scowled at him, making him jump slightly. 

“Okay okay. Mr. Oikawa is on the fourth floor, second door to the left.”

“Thank you.”

The light was still on in Oikawa’s room, but the man’s eyes were closed. Iwaizumi gently opened the door, feeling unsure. What was he really doing here? But he still went in, closing the door just as gently behind him. 

Oikawa had a bandage around his head and his right arm was in a cast, resting over his chest. His chest was rising and falling slowly with each breath. He looked younger. More vulnerable. 

Iwaizumi wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. He had just felt the need to see that Oikawa was okay with his own two eyes. He wasn’t sure if the other was still unconscious or just sleeping. He gingerly took one of the chairs in the room and sat down next to Oikawa’s bed on his left side. Oikawa’s left hand was closed in a tight fist, and Iwaizumi wasn’t sure what made him to it, but he carefully reached out and tapped Oikawa’s hand with the tip of his fingers to get him to relax. 

Oikawa made a small noise, and Iwaizumi snapped his head around to look at his face. Had he accidentally woken him up? He wasn’t sure if he wanted Oikawa to know that he was here. He pulled back his hand, crossing his arms over his chest. He should go home now that he knew that Oikawa wasn’t dying. Instead, he found himself leaning back in the chair, his eyes falling shut. 

He really should go home. Instead, he fell asleep to the sound of Oikawa’s even breaths. 

  
  
  


“Iwaizumi-san.” Someone shook his shoulder gently and he snapped his eyes open. Only to be immediately blinded by the sharp light in the room. He groaned and shut his eyes again. His bedroom wasn’t this light and he was momentarily confused about where he was. What the-

“Good morning,” the same voice said again, sounding a bit amused. Iwaizumi recognised the voice, but he couldn’t place it. He gingerly opened his eyes again. Standing next to him with an amused smile on his lips was Yahaba Shigeru. 

“What-” Iwaizumi croaked. He must’ve fallen asleep yesterday. His neck protested loudly. 

“I didn’t expect to find you here, Iwaizumi-san,” Yahaba said, placing a bouquet of flowers on the small table in the room. 

“Me neither,” Iwaizumi grumbled. He looked over at Oikawa who still had his eyes closed. He looked peaceful. 

Iwaizumi stood up. “I should get going.” 

“Is there anything you want me to pass on to Oikawa if he wakes up?” Yahaba asked, still with an amused glint in his eyes, like he knew something Iwaizumi didn’t. Iwaizumi scowled at the former Slytherin. 

“No, thanks. I’ll be back to talk to him myself.”

“I’m sure he’ll look forward to that,” Yahaba grinned. 

Iwaizumi gave him a weird look. “Sure. Bye.” 

He left before the other could confuse him more. He cast one last look at Oikawa before he was out of there .

  
  
  


He spent the rest of the Sunday in his sofa, staring out at nothing. He hadn’t even bothered to turn on the TV, even if he probably needed the distraction. Instead he kept replaying Oikawa’s fall in his head, wallowing in guilt. Rationally he knew it wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his fault that some assholes wanted to hurt Oikawa. But he should’ve prevented it. If he’d just been standing on the other side of the field, then maybe he would’ve been able to at least stop Oikawa’s fall. 

The rational part of his brain told him he was stupid. Besides, it wasn’t like Oikawa had died. He was going to be fine. Not that he cared. He just didn’t want Oikawa’s death on his conscious. At least that was what he was trying to tell himself. 

So far he hadn’t really managed to convince himself. 

At some point during the day, someone knocked on the door. He ignored it. He had no interest in talking to anyone. If it was someone from the Ministry they could send an owl. Most likely it was just Hanamaki or Matsukawa. And those two he was definitely ignoring today. 

It was his day off after all. He was allowed to wallow in his own failures today. He had considered going back to Sankt Mungos to check on Oikawa, but leaving that morning had felt way too much like a walk of shame that he had no desire to show his face there again too soon. Besides, if Yahaba was still there it would be super awkward. He hadn’t liked the way the Slytherin had smiled at him. 

Damn Slytherins. Why was he suddenly surrounded by them? 

  
  
  


At some point, he must’ve fallen asleep on his sofa. He woke up with the sun in his eyes and pain in his stiff neck. Great. He rolled off the sofa, lowkey hating himself for not getting up yesterday. Thankfully he had the Monday off as well since he had worked extra on Saturday. Not that he felt like he deserved an extra day off for that failure. But he didn’t really want to go to work either. 

His reflection in the bathroom mirror showed him that he looked just as much as shit as he felt. Fantastic. Mondays were apparently the worst even if you had the day off. 

After a shower and breakfast, he felt slightly more human and less like something that had crawled out from the bottom of a well. He had also decided that he was going to visit Oikawa today. Hopefully, he’d woken up at this point. Iwaizumi wasn’t sure what he would do if he was still unconscious. 

  
  
  


Luckily, he didn’t need to worry. Oikawa was half sitting up in his bed, book in his lap, when Iwaizumi arrived. 

“Iwa-chan!” he smiled, even if it wasn’t as bright as it usually was. “Here I was starting to think you didn’t care about me.” 

“I don’t,” he said, putting down a box of candy on the bedside table next to Oikawa, which clearly contradicted his statement. He’d changed his mind at least fifteen times on the way over if he should bring something or not. They weren’t friends, but it felt weird coming empty-handed. His mother had always told him that you should bring a gift if someone was sick or injured because it was the nice thing to do. And even if Oikawa was a prick, he didn’t deserve to be in the hospital, so the least Iwaizumi could do was to bring him some candy. 

Maybe it also was because he felt guilty. And besides, at Hogwarts when someone got injured, you always gave them candy. 

“For me?” Oikawa said, looking down at the box with surprise. 

“No, for the poor staff that is stuck looking after your annoying ass,” Iwaizumi deadpanned. “Of course they’re for you, idiot.”

“Always so harsh.” Oikawa smiled a small smile. “Thank you, Iwa-chan.” 

“Don’t mention it,” he grumbled, feeling awkward. He took the chair he’d been sitting on the other night, sitting down again. His neck protested like it remembered the pain of not sleeping in a proper bed for two nights now. “How are you feeling ?”

“Like I’ve fallen off a broom,” Oikawa said, grinning slightly, even if it turned into a wince when he tried to tilt his head. 

Iwaizumi gave him a flat stare. 

“I’m fine, Iwa-chan. You don’t have to worry,” Oikawa sighed, tapping his fingers against his cast. 

“Glad to hear you’re not dying.” 

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Oikawa teased, but it fell flat between them.

“Oikawa, you could’ve died.”

“I know.” 

“I’m sorry.”

That made Oikawa look up at him, frown between his eyebrows. “Why are you sorry?” 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop the bastard,” Iwaizumi admitted. “I could’ve prevented this.” 

He looked up in surprise when Oikawa laughed at him. “Don’t be stupid. This isn’t your fault.” 

“But-”

“No, Iwa-chan. You’re not allowed to blame yourself,” Oikawa said sternly. “I’m not blaming you, so you shouldn’t either. Besides, Akaashi said you caught the guilty one.”

Iwaizumi sighed, not completely convinced. But he remembered from their years at Hogwarts that it was seldom worth it to argue with Oikawa. “One of them. We believe they were at least two.” 

“Have the one you arrested said anything about it?” Oikawa tried to not look curious and failed miserably. 

“Not yet. But he will,” Iwaizumi said, brows furrowed.

“Ooh, scary, Iwa-chan.”

“Shut up.” He was about to swat Oikawa when he remembered that he was lying in a hospital bed at the moment. 

Oikawa’s grin faltered, and he pouted. “I’m not going to break if you hit me, you know.” 

“I don’t want to hit you,” Iwaizumi claimed. Oikawa huffed at that. 

“Sure thing.” 

Iwaizumi got the feeling that Oikawa wanted to reach out his tongue at him but resisted in some sort of pretense that he was a mature adult. 

“Well, you seem to be doing good. I should get going,” Iwaizumi said, starting to get up, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Wait!” Oikawa reached out his healthy arm, catching his wrist. “Stay. For a while. Please?” 

“I-” 

Oikawa looked at him in a way he never had before. Iwaizumi would almost call it begging, but Oikawa Toruu never begged for anything. 

“Okay,” he said, sitting down again. The smile Oikawa gave him was almost relieved. 

“Do you want to play a game of chess? Yahaba left me a set so I could play if I got bored.” 

“Sure.” 

Iwaizumi was not going to tell Oikawa that he was terrible at chess. He found out that soon enough anyway. But overall, he had a pretty good time playing chess with Oikawa, throwing insults back and forth. It wasn’t a completely terrible way to spend his day off. Not that he’d ever admit that to Oikawa. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is that i see? *squints eyes* iwa starting to almost enjoy oik's company? oh my 
> 
> Hope you liked this chapter! Please leave a comment with your thoughts, it would make me the happiest. Hopefully the next chapter won't take over three months to update... fingers crossed
> 
> Until next, take care and i hope that you're all well in these weird times xoxo


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